Hi Ricky, what are you working on at the moment?
Loads! I’m on the third draft of this film with Steve Merchant called The Men At The Pru. It’s set in the early ’70s and it’s sort of a coming-of-age thing, even though the characters are 23 to 25. It’s about class and it’s about boys and girls and we’re probably going to film it next year. I’m also editing This Side Of The Truth, my directorial debut.

It’s about a world like our own in present-day America, but the human race never evolved the gene for lying. I come along and I’m the first person who can actually lie. It was either me or Jim Carrey, ha ha! And Ghost Town, my first lead role in a Hollywood film, is out in October. It’s really sweet and I’m very proud of it. It’s just a really nice film.

You're loaded now, but did you ever struggle for cash?
I used to do tricks for heroin. Ha, ha! No, I didn’t have tough times. I just wasn’t trying. I worked in an office for seven years and I was just a people-watcher. I thought I was a funny guy and I was a comedy fan. It was one of those things that sort of happened when I was about 36 and I met Steve Merchant. I didn’t have that romantic struggle of coming up through the comedy clubs. In fact, I think it’s because I started late and I had an older head on my shoulders that I didn’t compromise. I told the BBC I wanted total control and it wasn’t a bluff. If they didn’t let me do it my own way, I was going to walk away. I really meant it but I look back now and shudder.

You're spending a lot of time working in the US. Have you got a place there now?
Yeah, I’ve just bought an apartment near Madison Square Garden in New York. I wanted to fight there, but I'm not good enough. So I thought I'd do comedy there instead! I can walk to the gig from my place.

Is America a good source of material?
The things I pick up on are probably global and America is pretty global anyway. But they’ve got all of the entertainment icons, which is good. I don't believe I particularly aim for anything "American". I tend to pick on the comedy classics - you know, Hitler, famine...

Ha! So was the Extras Christmas special autobiographical?
It was what would‘ve happened if it had gone differently for me. That probably was my worst nightmare. If I had to choose between success and integrity, what would I have done? I like to think I would have walked away, but who knows? So yeah, we just played it as a parallel universe where things didn’t go my way... the rant at the end? Well, that was just me!

Are you planning another series or is it the end?
I don’t know. I’m going to blame it on Steve Merchant. I’m trying to persuade him to do another special, but we do like the way we ended it. I don’t want to come back for a less-wanted encore but I think it’s different to The Office, which we definitely killed dead. It’s more of a never-say-never situation with Extras. But we’re working on The Men At The Pru now, so it certainly won’t be for a while.

Which comics do you admire?
I think Laurel and Hardy are the greatest of all time. I just want to hug them! I can’t laugh at someone I don’t like. They can be saying the best lines in the world but if I don’t like them, I can’t laugh. I just can’t. Hitler had some great lines – didn’t make me laugh at all. Ha ha!

You’ve been doing stand-up in the States. How do you write gags for your act?
I have a bag of observations that I think might be funny and I jot them down. I probably start with about half an hour and that becomes an hour. The other 30 minutes is sort of ad-libs and additions over the course of a tour. The big difference between my stand-up and The Office or Extras is that when you write a sitcom, you do it blindly. You’re not second-guessing an audience but you can’t change it once you’ve done it, so you’ve got to have 100 per cent faith in what you do. Stand-up is more of an evolution. The audience chooses the best bits for you. It’s a process of natural selection. So over a hundred dates, they’ve chosen your best hour. You thought it up and you said it, but they’ve done the difficult bit for you. It’s nearly cheating compared to sitcom writing.

Ghost Town is out in October