Ricky Gervais ‘wanted Canadian passport’

British comedian Ricky Gervais has revealed during a trip to the Banff World Television Awards that he considered getting Canadian citzenship because his father was born in Canada.
 
Gervais, who received the Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award at Tuesday night's ceremony, told local journalists that he thought having a Canadian passport "might be useful in a war. You're like a big Switzerland."
 
However, he lost interest once he found out that he would have to give up his UK passport. "I wanted dual citizenship, I want the best of both worlds. I want two passports... like Jason Bourne, he's got loads."
 
Asked by journalists if he would "look into his roots in London, Ontario" Gervais said that he was "always scared" that he would find out something awful. "As [comedy producer] Karl Pilkington says, if you had someone really good in your family like Einstein, they'd be telling you about it. [But] what you find out is that your great-great-grandfather used to visit prostitutes and he was probably a mass murderer. So, don't look."
 
Meanwhile Gervais had the Canadian television industry audience in stitches at the awards, joking that he had thought Banff was an acronym like Bafta. The Alberta town, which is based in a national park near the Canadian Rockies, was beautiful if remote, he added. "A friend a while ago joked and said: 'Ricky, you'd travel to the ends of the Earth to get an award.' I laughed, but here I am." ·