Gervais gives online English lessons

UK comedian Ricky Gervais has completed the pilot for a web series in which he teaches viewers how to speak English.

Ricky Gervais

A trailer for the pilot of Learn English with Ricky Gervais shows the comedian discussing the English language with Karl Pilkington (An Idiot Abroad, Derek). Further details of the format are unknown.

The pilot, produced by Gervais’s prodco Risk, will be available to download for free from iTunes on August 14.

The co-creator of The Office has also indicated via his blog that the show would be made for audiences outside the UK and the US, saying he hoped to have it “subtitled into as many languages as possible.”

Gervais is yet to decide on a funding model for future episodes, writing in his blog that he is currently looking for a company to sponsor the show, but is considering “charging a small fee.”

The pilot represents an increasing trend for high-profile comedians to air content online, bypassing the traditional TV platform.

US online video platform Crackle is now hosting the first episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s web series Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, starring Larry David. The second episode, due later this month, will feature Gervais.

In related news, HBO has recruited Gervais’s co-writer on The Office and Extras, Stephen Merchant, to produce a comedy pilot based on Merchant’s stand-up tour, Hello Ladies.

The pilot, co-written by Merchant with Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, both of whom worked on the US version of The Office, will feature an Englishman looking for love in LA.