Timeline
A timeline of the history and development of the shows, and the careers of the three main performers.
1961
- June 25th: Ricky Gervais is born in Reading
1972
- September 23rd: Karl Pilkington is born in Manchester
1974
- November 24th: Stephen Merchant is born in Bristol
1998
- January: Ricky and Steve begin their first show (Series 0) on Xfm.
- August: Ricky and Steve take voluntary redundancy from Xfm
2001
- September: Ricky and Steve return to Xfm with a new show, with Karl Pilkington as their producer. Series 1, and the show as we know it, begins.
2002
- May 4th: Ricky and Steve take a break to film the second series of The Office, marking the end of series 1.
- August 24th: Ricky and Steve return, and Series 2 begins.
- August 31st: An early version of Rockbusters is played for the first time
2003
- January 25th: Monkey News makes its debut.
- August 16th: Series 2 ends after 51 weeks, as Ricky and Steve go off to film The Office Christmas specials. The show's future hangs on whether Karl decides to return.
- November 1st: The show does return, as Karl now has Mondays off, and Series 3 begins
2004
- January 17th: Series 3 draws to a close.
2005
- May 28th: The show returns with the six-week Series 4.
- July 2nd: The last show of the series, and of any Xfm series ends early as Ricky will be introducing REM at Live 8.
- December 5th: The first series of 12 weekly Podcasts begin, free on Guardian Unlimited
- December 24th and 31st: Ricky, Steve and Karl stand in for Jonathan Ross on BBC Radio 2 over the Christmas period.
2006
- January 23rd: The first excerpts of Karl's Diary are read in Podcast episode 8.
- February 20th: Podcast Series 1 draws to a close.
- February 27th: Podcast Series 2 begins, 6 weeks in length and no longer free, available on iTunes or Audible.
- April 4th: Podcast Series 2 ends.
- August 22nd: After a break in order to film Extras Series 2, the Podcasts return with Series 3, the same deal as Series 2.