Ricky Gervais accused of bullying

Ricky Gervais has been accused of bullying by a comedian who toured with him.

Fellow comedian Robin Ince claims Ricky often taunted him backstage when they toured together in 2007, explaining he laughed it off at the time but had since changed his mind about what happened.

"I look back now, and I think it is bullying, really it is," Robin, 55, told The Starting Line with Rich Leigh podcast. "I'm very good at sometimes just acclimatising to things, in which you go, ­'actually, this is really weird'."

He also recounted an incident at a Christmas party, where, he said, Ricky, 63, read aloud from a fictionalised "diary" pretending it was Robin's, which made other attendees, including Ricky's The Office co-star Mackenzie Crook, uncomfortable.

"Mackenzie Crook eventually went, 'Rick, can you stop doing it please?'" Robin said. "I would go through it, but people who knew me did not like the way that relationship worked."

He explained his experiences of teasing and "banter" from Ricky left him with rashes and hair loss.

"I am not saying it is a traumatic experience, but after two weeks I came out in red lumps that my doctor said were a stress rash," Robin revealed. "I think my hair is coming out in clumps."