Gervais' current workload indicates that he has no plans to return to television in a hurry. Cemetery Junction, his first cinematic collaboration with The Office and Extras co-creator Stephen Merchant, is due for release early next year.

An animated movie of his children's book series Flanimals is also in the pipeline, while a cartoon adaptation of his infamous podcasts with Merchant and cult comic Karl Pilkington has just gone into development.

"I'm more excited about that than Flanimals and The Invention of Lying," he declares. "It's amazing how they've animated all those ridiculous conversations.

"Karl is going to be the new Homer Simpson but he's real, you can meet him. Little things like that are labours of love. I did Flanimals to make my nephew laugh and I did the podcasts to be in a room with Karl Pilkington. If you do something with a laugh, it will be okay."

* The Invention Of Lying is out in cinemas November 26. Ghost Town is out now on DVD.

By Stephen Jewell