Merchant beats Gervais to comedy prize

Stephen Merchant, co-writer of The Office and Extras, has been showered with awards for creating the highly successful comedy series.

But last night he received his first accolade for performing in front of the camera. Merchant was named best comedy actor at the British Comedy Awards for the BBC 2 series Extras, beating long-time collaborator Ricky Gervais and David Mitchell & Robert Webb of Peep Show.

Merchant played the inept actors' agent Darren Lamb, who has only two clients: "Barry from EastEnders" and Andy Millman, played by Gervais. He has become a cult comedic figure, with a clip of his character flipping a fountain pen to reveal a naked woman being viewed more than 5,000 times on YouTube.

Gervais played the leading roles in both Extras and The Office, for which he won Best Comedy Actor in 2002, but Merchant's comedic acting talents have only recently been seen.

While Gervais played cringeworthy boss David Brent in The Office, Merchant made a cameo appearance as Oggy, or "The Oggmonster", in the second series of the show. And Lamb's character has been developed and expanded in the second series of Extras, an experience Merchant has described as being "like dressing up when you're a kid".

While Merchant, 32, who claims his 6ft 7inch height should be considered a disability, is most often linked with Gervais, he has recently taken a cameo role in the next series of 24 and will appear in a remake of Brideshead Revisited. In January he will host a music show on BBC Radio 6 Music.

The pair, who first met when they worked together at the radio station XFM, will also be collaborating on an episode for the third series of the American version of The Office.

Although Mitchell and Webb missed out on the award for best actor, Peep Show, made by Objective for Channel 4, won best television comedy, beating Extras and The Thick of It. The third series of the sitcom followed the lives of 20-something flatmates in London.

Russell Brand received the award for best male comedy newcomer for his E4 series Russell Brand's Got Issues. Brand, and his trademark cravats, became ubiquitous after presenting Big Brother's Big Mouth and being linked with model Kate Moss. His own show follows a similar magazine-style format.

Singer-turned-talkshow host Charlotte Church, 20, was named best female comedy newcomer for The Charlotte Church Show, made by Monkey for Channel 4. She has recently confirmed she will star in the film Bridge of Lies, directed by Little Britain director Matt Lipsey.

Meanwhile Catherine Tate, whose catchphrase "Am I Bovvered" is echoed around school corridors, beat Katherine Parkinson, star of Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd, and Tamsin Greig of Green Wing, to be awarded Best Comedy Actress for her BBC2 Christmas special.

Best international comedy show was won by Curb Your Enthusiasm, starring co-writer of Seinfeld Larry David as himself. The series beat the US version of The Office: An American Workplace and Chris Rock's Everybody Hates Chris.

The Writer's Guild of Great Britain award was won by Sacha Baron Cohen, Dan Mazer, Anthony Hines and Peter Bayhnam - the team who wrote Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan - better known as the Borat film.

Winning laughs

BEST TV COMEDY ACTOR: Stephen Merchant - Extras

BEST TV COMEDY ACTRESS: Catherine Tate - The Catherine Tate Christmas Special

BEST COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT PERSONALITY: Harry Hill - Harry Hill's TV Burp

BEST MALE COMEDY NEWCOMER: Russell Brand - Russell Brand's Got Issues

BEST FEMALE COMEDY NEWCOMER: Charlotte Church - The Charlotte Church Show

BRITAIN'S BEST NEW TV COMEDY: Star Stories

BEST TV COMEDY: Peep Show

BEST STAGE COMEDY: Little Britain

BEST COMEDY FILM: Curse of the Were-Rabbit

BEST INTERNATIONAL COMEDY SHOW: Curb Your Enthusiasm

BEST LIVE STAND-UP TOUR: Jimmy Carr - Gag Reflex