Much loved comic diagnosed with personality disorder

Friends and relatives were today rallying round comedy star Ricky Gervais after he announced that he was suffering from “Single Personality Disorder”.

“He has suffered, quietly, for years,” said a pal. “He has managed to cover it up by clever renaming of his David Brent character and sometimes by wearing a different jacket.”

Gervais said he had made the announcement to try and help others with the same affliction. SPD is a condition said to inflict most of society, however it is a dangerous condition for a comedic genius such as Gervais.

“Not everyone has been as lucky as me. With the help of a few close friends, and a fawning media. I managed to conceal the awful truth for over 5 years,” the comic said today.

Friends reveal that the strain was starting to tell on Ricky and advised him to make a public statement so that he could then seek help with his condition.

“Ricky is Ricky, a wonderful chap, but exactly what you see on TV is Ricky. There is no hidden dimension to his talent.” said a source close to the award winning star. “He took his past, you know struggling comic, failed pop career with “Seona Dancing” and with some help, distorted it into David Brent.”

Whilst Gervais was overjoyed at the success of The Office the pressure to produce something new would have been too much for even the best comedians, but for Ricky, suffering from SPD it was a nightmare.

“It was a real struggle for him. He renamed David Brent, to Andy Millman, and wrote some stuff about his time as a jobbing actor trying to get his sitcom produced for Extras. He was saved by his new celebrity friends rallying around and hid the truth under the glare of all that celebrity.”

The success of Extras enabled Gervais to move David Brent forward as finally having that sitcom produced and thus into a second series. However the critical panning of the movie “Night at the Museum” in which David Brent is placed as the director of the museum forced Ricky to face up to the truth. “He realised he just couldn’t stretch a pompous, self centred egotist any further and had to do something.”

Friends, family and showbiz colleagues alike are hopeful that Ricky’s therapy will be successful, otherwise the forthcoming 'Extras Special' will have to be based around A-list Hollywood celebrities performing the David Brent dance.