A thin Ricky Gervais? Now that's a sight to behold. In 1998 Gervais had a one-off on Channel 4 entitled Golden Years and for anyone without access to 4oD's TV-on-demand service someone has kindly posted it here. It is a fascinating piece of broadcasting history and not just because you can actually see Ricky Gervais with a relatively flat stomach. Many of the trademarks that have made him telly's top comedian are already in place.

Gervais plays Clive Meadows, the co-owner of movie store Videozone ("That's Rentertainment") and with the benefit of hindsight the character feels distinctly like a dry run for David Brent. There's the same Brentish desperation to make jokes, the same painful pauses, the same flirting with his long-suffering secretary, the same cheap suits, the same embarrassment about his impending middle age. And like Gervais himself, there is an overwhelming obsession with future Extras star David Bowie – the crop-topped Ziggy Stardust impression is priceless.

In fact the only thing that is missing is the ironic political incorrectness that has become Gervais's stand-up calling card. Although if you also follow the youtube links to the rest of the programme you'll find a hint of the bad taste to come at the very, very end. Gervais completists might also like to know that Stephen Merchant's dad has a cameo as a bemused colleague.

The one thing this episode has taught me, however, is never throw anything away. When Golden Years was aired as part of C4's late-night Comedy Lab strand I received a very nice personal letter from the then unknown Ricky politely asking me to find some time to watch it and maybe write about it. Of course, being far too tidy for my own good, I threw the letter away. Just as I threw away a set of hand-written lyrics given to me by Manic Street Preacher Richey Edwards. A few years later I also disposed of a letter by Russell Brand, pleading with me to see his embryonic act. I get a strange feeling of nostalgia and regret when I think of these incidents. They may never happen again. And a saved email from a future superstar will not fetch anywhere near as much on ebay.

So here's my message for the day. Never throw anything away. Unless it actually has mould on it.

It's what you might call a good week/bloody awful week for the Beckhams. David's England career has presumably been flushed down the pan along with England's Euro 2008 dreams, but at least Victoria is doing her bit to earn a crust. Not content with a Spice Girls reunion we get to see her having a crack at comedy with a well-timed cameo in this week's episode of Ugly Betty, which goes out on C4 this Friday.

Posh is maid of honour at Wilhemina's wedding, but as you can imagine, she's not content at playing second fiddle to anyone. She's thinner, blonder and worst of all, has a nattier dress than the bride. And even when Wilhemina sticks her in a frumpier frock Posh continues to steal the limelight.

The funny thing is that, well, Posh is actually funny. There was a sneak preview on E4 on Wednesday just as David and co were losing their match and their dignity and while she inevitably does her usual limited range of pouting, her patter is spot-on as the self-mocking haughty Brit diva abroad. But then she's been acting the haughty Brit diva for so long – as anyone who saw her hilariously OTT fly-on-the-Prada ITV documentary earlier this year would already know – that I guess it comes naturally.

Posh's performance is certainly better than Geri Halliwell's ridiculously self-conscious Sex And The City cameo, so let's hope it doesn't cause a catfight on tour. As one character jokes in Ugly Betty, "The Beckhams have conquered America. Accept it they're our leaders." I think that's taking things a bit far, but Posh's career doesn't seem to be doing too badly at the moment. And with their World Tour selling out and looking like being extended, she has a chance of playing in Europe in 2008. Which is more than you can say for David. The Spice Girls' manager Simon Fuller is clearly shrewder than Steve McClaren. Maybe he should be in charge of the England team.

Should comedians always tell the truth? This is the question that has mostly been bugging me this week. For a number of reasons. Firstly there is Russell Brand's autobiography, My Booky Wook, which spills pretty much every bean in Brand's life, from seedy orgies in East End council flats to hiding heroin in his bottom when travelling abroad.

With Brand what you see is what you get. Every story he tells onstage appears to be painfully candid. Why would he come out with so many sleazy stories if they weren't for real? To paraphrase something he once said, his life is divided into going out and living his sordid life and standing onstage telling us about his sordid life. And one of the reasons Brand is so good is that he gives a bit of himself away onstage. Well, a lot actually. Great comedy is about honesty. Truth, erm, rings true onstage in a way fiction doesn't.

I was reminded of this earlier in the week when Sean Hughes was onstage at the Arts Theatre talking about being caught up in the 2004 Tsunami. At one point he paused and said of course this is true, why would he make something like this up?

Well, the thing is, hold the front page, comedians do bend the truth a little. One of the problems of seeing a lot of comedy is seeing the same comedian over and over again talk about something that happened to him/her on the way to the gig that day, when you know they've been doing the same gag throughout the tour. It's a construct, a fabrication, and we should all know it by now, but it still bugs me.

Talking of bugs, however, the same scepticism arose during Stewart Lee's Soho Theatre show this week when he told a story about performing at a festival celebrating insect life called Pestival. I assumed he was making this up, but Pestival definitely does exist and you can read about it here.

Lee is not always 100% accurate though. He once did a routine about having a blazing argument with film director Ang Lee which was hard to believe and in his current set, entitled 41st Best Stand Up, inspired by his position in a recent C4 poll, he mentions the fact that when Bernard Manning died after the poll had been published, Lee thought that would mean he would move up to number 40. Sadly though, I looked at the chart and checked. Presumably Lee had studied the chart, so he surely should have known that that could not happen. Dead people were always eligible – Bill Hicks is number 6, Richard Pryor is number 4. So even if Lee manages to outlive all the people above him that will never make him the world's top comedian. He is very good though, so maybe he should be allowed to bend the truth occasionally in the name of comedy. And that's definitely the truth.

I heard that American television is talking about remaking the cult sitcom Spaced and got nervous. Very nervous. Spaced, by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, was one of my favourite sitcoms when it went out at the turn of the century on C4. Like Pegg's later movies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz it was the perfect blend of knowing spoof and dumb gags. If the Simpsons had featured real people and been set in a rented house in north London it might have been something like Spaced.

So how on earth can this be adapted for American TV? Over the years Americans have attempted to adapt our great comedies with very little success. Legend has it that when they made a pilot of Fawlty Towers some executive said "I love it, but let's lose that crazy guy called Basil and concentrate on his wife." A remake of Men Behaving Badly didn't fare too well because of the law that says you can't have ugly people on American telly and making the leads look cool took away the spotty, jug-eared charm of Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey.

Which makes you wonder who they would cast as the leads in Spaced. They could do a lot worse than Michael Cera from Superbad as comic book fanboy Tim, but he's probably too young and with his movie career taking off too expensive. And who could they cast as aspiring writer Daisy? How about America Ferrera, aka Ugly Betty?

Apart from All In The Family, the US version of Till Death Us Do Part, which was so long ago it must have been filmed with steam-driven cameras, there is just one adaptation that gives me hope. As usual, the answer is The Office. Ricky Gervais's sitcom has not just been a success itself over there, the American version starring Steve Carell and set in Scranton, Pennsylvania instead of Slough has hit paydirt and bagged awards too. Even when they ran out of original Gervais scripts they kept going with great success. If the US version of Spaced can follow this template then maybe, just maybe, the sky is the limit.

As long as some bright-spark exec doesn't say "I love it, but let's lose that crazy couple called Tim and Daisy and concentrate on the landlady."