Ricky Gervais: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. Charles Heathbar - The Simpsons

Guest stars are the bane of The Simpsons nowadays. Oh look, this latest C-list sensation is coming to town for some hackneyed event two years after they were relevant! But it wasn’t always that way: Albert Brooks; Johnny Cash; John Jay Smith. One of the last great turns came from Gervais, who played a British Wife Swap contestant in an episode he wrote himself.

It was very different from what you expect of The Simpsons - very British humour - but Gervais sold it without becoming too cloying as the guest lead. He's also appeared in the show as himself, but that was a little more forced.

Regardless, I actually think animation is where Gervais personal angles work best - he was fun as Billy Finn in Family Guy and weird Brit schtick was much more palatable in The Little Prince (on Netflix now - check it out).