Stephen Merchant hasn’t had more offers of work since Extras

Extras star Stephen Merchant has revealed his shock that he hasn't had more offers of work since the hit show.

Merchant said that while Ricky Gervais was off making movies, he hadn't had the same response. He said: "I was quite surprised, I thought there would be more calls.

"I really thought there would be more calls and there haven't been and I'm really quite shocked.

"I don't know what to do, I don't know whether I should be more pro-active."

He also joked that his fame hadn't given him much luck with the ladies either. He said: "The reason I got into comedy was for the chicks and I was crushingly disappointed that unlike being a rock star it didn't really happen.

"I think what frustrates me is that the people who recognise me are not the people that are useful to me. People who run restaurants don't know who I am, bouncers at nightclubs have no idea."

Merchant then revealed his shame after he was turned away from a nightclub. He said: "I was trying to get into a nightclub a while ago with some friends and we were looking for some hot action that evening, it was a Friday night.

"We went all the way to one of those big super-clubs in central London. We were in the queue and making our way and people are seeing me and going 'all right Steve how's it going? Photo?'

And we get to the bouncers and I'm thinking 'ding dong, they've seen this action'. So I say "I'm here, I'm with a couple of male friends, can we come in"? And they said "no".

"I said "come on, I'm Stephen Merchant", they said "no you can't come in".

"I said "why can't we come in"? He said "because you haven't got any girls with you".

"I said "but we're coming in to meet girls. If we had girls we'd be at home with those girls".

"He said "you can't come in". So now I've got to traipse back, past all these people who were having photos and saying well done Steve and sort of say, "I've decided not to go in"."

Stephen said they then tried the VIP entrance where the door staff took them back to the front of the queue - only to be turned down again. Speaking on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, he said: "People often talk about the excrutriatingness of our show and of how agonizing they are and about social embarrassment and that continues.

"It continues even once you've been on telly and you think you're going to escape that world and you're not longer going to be embarrassed socially and it continues."