After smart warm-up from comic rapper Doc Brown and an introduction from The Office’s Pinteresque pause-loving Keith, Brent appeared. He is, we discovered, currently a travelling sales rep, specialising in cleaning products. He ought to be a paunchy fiftysomething though. Gervais had the shades, earring and ageing rocker waistcoat, but looked far too slim for someone who lives on service station pies. 

The songs, though, were hideously accurate. Backed by four tousle-haired musos, including ex-Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows, Brent’s melodies made you want to tap your toes while the cliche-crammed lyrics made you want to clench your buttocks. In Life On The Road he tried far too hard to make his day job sound sexy: “Then to Gloucester I get a Costa. Hard Shoulder? Coffee Holder.” Route 66 it ain’t.

Doc Brown reappeared for the cod-reggae Equality Street, in which Brent indulged in the wince-inducing “biddly biddly bong” chorus. Best was the painfully awkward Lady Gypsy, in which our hero revealed that he lost his virginity to a woman selling heather. The encore could only be Freelove Freeway from The Office – “The love is free and the freeway's long,” now given the turbo-charged amplified treatment.

And then Brent was gone. Hitting the A4 freeway back to Slough no doubt. This 45-minute work-in-progress was terrific and there is talk of bigger shows. I’m not sure how much further the joke could be stretched. Knowing Ricky Gervais though, all the way to the O2 Arena.