antonia bland expected her
new Hampstead neighbour to be
discreet. Are you having a laugh?
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Is Ricky Gervais becoming too rich and famous for his own good? His official website trumpets without irony his latest successes, including his coming American stand-up debut at Madison Square Garden - 'SOLD OUT' - and his eighth appearance on the David Letterman Show.
For someone so keen on his 'ordinary bloke' image, and so critical of celebrity vanitas, he seems to be flying far too close to the flaming object of his satire, celebrity madness.
When I first heard he was moving to our street, I imagined he'd be the most discreet of neighbours, his moving-van slipping in and out, headlights off. Maybe one day I'd catch a glimpse of him, like Greta Garbo, at the window. That, after all, was his reputation.
In the event, his entrance has been worthy of P Diddy. Having bought a delightful and unassuming Victorian house with leaded windows and wild rosemary tumbling over the |
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| Gervais has demanded renovations which include an underground swimming pool complex and a ‘golf simulator’ |
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garden wall, Gervais has demanded renovations which include an underground swimming pool complex and a 'golf simulator'.
It now looks like Hitler's bunker. An enormous chute bridges the pavement, vomiting chunks of earth into a huge skip. The London Basement Company has installed a generator, its incessant drone drowning all birdsong, its vibrations shaking neighbours' tea-cups. And because the excavations go so deep, there is even talk that the drilling might unleash underground rivers.
With head office doubtless aware of Gervais's success in America, the men from the LBC are here for the long haul. The skip has been painted - a first on our street - the same battleship grey as the hoarding which now hides his home from prying eyes, while the brigades of workers have a row of hooks on which to hang their jackets.
In short, Ricky Gervais has made it abundantly clear that he is no ordinary bloke. Never mind sacrificing your comic genius for fame and glory - did you have to make quite such a racket about it?
FIRST POSTED APRIL 16, 2007
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