Author: Stuart Kemp

LONDON – Ricky Gervais said his comic creation David Brent, who bossed breakthrough BBC sitcom, The Office, is the subject of interest from both the BBC and Netflix for a return to the small screen.

Gervais told the Radio Times magazine that both the public broadcaster and the online subscription giant have expressed a desire to work out a spinoff.

PHOTOS: The Booming Business of Ricky Gervais: From ‘The Office’ to ‘Muppets’

The comedian, who co-created and co-wrote The Office with Stephen Merchant, resurrected the character 10 years after the original program went off the air for Britain’s Comic Relief charity show in 2013 and for the subsequent launch of Gervais’ own YouTube channel.

The comedy character is currently touring U.K. concert venues with his fictional band Foregone Conclusion and is at the center of a social media maelstrom of speculation that he may rock up and rock out at Glastonbury music festival later this year.

“It could happen,” Gervais told the U.K.’s Radio Times.

“It would be amazing for Ricky Gervais, but I don’t know if I can justify it. He can’t play venues outside the story.”

VIDEO: Ricky Gervais Brings Back ‘Office’ Character David Brent With New Music Video, Episode

Brent’s story is one of disappointment, failure and self-delusion, so playing Glastonbury would certainly mean that as a musician he had achieved more than the character ever would or should.

Gervais also said that he was bitten by the Brent bug again after bringing him back for Comic Relief.

“I love David Brent but I can’t just do it as a vanity project because the BBC and Netflix are up for it. I don’t know whether to do an on-the-road special or make that the whole series.”

Gervais signed off from the British version of The Office with a pair of Christmas specials on BBC1 11 years ago.

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Ben Miller

LONDON – Doctor Who is lining up the baddies for its upcoming season.

Actor, comedian and real-life physics expert Ben Miller will appear opposite the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) as a “storming villain,” according to showrunner Steven Moffat.

PHOTOS: Peter Capaldi and the 12 Men Who’ve Played the Doctor

Moffat said: “Mark Gatiss has written us a storming villain for his new episode, and with Capaldi in the TARDIS, we knew we needed somebody special to send everybody behind the sofa. And quite frankly, it’s about time Ben Miller was in Doctor Who.”

Miller, a self-confessed “Whovian,” said he couldn’t believe his luck in landing the role.

“My only worry is that they’ll make me leave the set when I’m not filming,” Miller said.

The former Death in Paradise star studied for a Ph.D. in physics at Cambridge University and has fronted BBC2 science strand Horizon.

He made his TV name as half of comedy duo Armstrong and Miller before success in dramas, including Primeval and, more recently, as a detective in the first two series of the BBC’s Death in Paradise.

Miller follows in the footsteps of his partner in comedy Alexander Armstrong, who appeared in the Doctor Who 2011 Christmas special.

Other familiar faces confirmed to join Capaldi and Jenna Coleman in the new season, which will unspool on BBC One later this year, include Tom Riley and Keeley Hawes, a female foe.