Ricky Gervais has been slammed for making fun of a disabled TV producer, who he claimed was too often the butt of his jokes.
Wheelchair user Ash Atalla has said that he was "uncomfortable" with the jokes that Gervais used to make but 'went along with it' at the time.
Reflecting on their time together when making The Office and the subsequent adulation that the sitcom received, Ash has said that he used to feel "awkward" when Gervais used to joke about him.
Ash has accused Gervais of being "obsessed" with disability, after he often made him the butt of gags he made at TV award ceremonies, as well during the filming of the acclaimed sitcom.
The 47-year-old was referred to by Gervais as "my little wheelchair friend," before he went on to jest about disability in his live shows and then to play disabled character Derek, in his critically-acclaimed series.
Ash uses a wheelchair after contracting polio when he was a child, was one referred to by Gervais as "just the same as Stephen Hawking, but without all the clever stuff."
Ash admitted: "I was complicit in him making fun of the wheelchair. But I don’t look back at it with an enormous amount of pride.
“I feel a little bit uncomfortable about some of the stuff we did together.”
While Ash, who has also produced The IT Crowd and Man Stroke Woman, also joked about his disability, he has complained that Gervais took it to a different level.
He continued: "There was another level of awkwardness to it.
“He did go on to make quite a few shows about disability so maybe he is obsessed with it.”
Ash revealed that Gervais would have meetings when producing The Office to discuss what they could get away with when joking about disability.
Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@trinitymirror.com or call us direct 0207 29 33033.
