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"Ricky Gervais has denied that his upcoming comedy Derek makes fun of disabled people. The 50-year-old comedian stars as Derek Noakes in the one-off comedy from Channel 4 later this month. Various commentators including comedian Stewart Lee have said that Derek makes jokes out of the &amp;quot;mentally handicapped&amp;quot;.  &amp;quot;Derek is a fictional character and is defined by his creator, me,&amp;quot; Gervais told disability rights campaigner and blogger Nicky Clark. &amp;quot;If I say I don&amp;#039;t mean him to be disabled then that&amp;#039;s it. A fictional doctor can&amp;#039;t come along and prove me wrong. He&amp;#039;s different. But then so are a lot of people. &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s not the smartest tool in the box but he&amp;#039;s cleverer than Father Dougal [from Father Ted], and not as different as Mr Bean. He&amp;#039;s based on those people you meet who are on the margins of society. Nerds, loners, under-achievers.&amp;quot; Clark - who has previously clashed with Gervais over his use of the word &amp;#039;mong&amp;#039; - was invited to watch a screening of Derek with Gervais and later praised the comedy. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve laughed and cried. I haven&amp;#039;t seen cruelty,&amp;quot; she wrote. &amp;quot;Instead of it being a mocking disintegration of a learning-disabled man paraded for the amusement of comfortable unaffected people, it&amp;#039;s the story that really needs to be told at the moment.&amp;quot; Derek also stars Karl Pilkington in his first acting role. Gervais recently said that his part is very similar to the man himself. Derek airs on Channel 4 on Thursday, April 12 at 10pm. &amp;gt; Ricky Gervais says Derek differs from Office: &amp;#039;There&amp;#039;s no irony&amp;#039; Watch a promo for Derek below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a375509/ricky-gervais-derek-doesnt-make-fun-of-the-disabled/>