Organised religion is strange, though. All that size, scale and apparent strength of belief - but with this vast insecurity beneath the surface.

"Yeah! An interviewer earlier asked me how I could possibly be an atheist. How could I be so sure?

"I said, that doesn't make any sense. The burden of proof is on you to back up all these strange ideas. It's like someone saying, 'How can you say there isn't there a big elephant in the room?' I'd say, 'Well, because there isn't! Obviously!'

"There's a big difference between spirituality and religion. With spirituality, there's the fact that you might believe in a god - that's true or it isn't. There either is or there isn't a god.

"Religion, though, as an organised, mass-belief thing... It doesn't care if there is or isn't a god. All the different religions are arguing amongst each other, so they can't all be right. There's a level of fascism in some religious groups - and that's abhorrent and immoral.

"Believing in god isn't immoral. A vicar isn't immoral. In my opinion, he's just mistaken. He's not a fraud or a charlatan or con-artist. He genuinely believes what he believes. But religion is something else."

But there are people who use the idea of 'spirituality' and 'afterlife' to con and defraud - by claiming they can talk to the dead.

Gervais smiles.

"Well, that's for you to say and get sued for... I don't believe that they can know they're talking to the dead because I don't believe the dead can talk. So I don't have to prove whether they're a fraud or not."

It'd be a fun day in court, though, if they did try to sue...

"Well, that's the absurd thing. They can say they can do whatever they want - and it's up to you to prove they can't, that they are making it up, that they're not actually talking to the dead. Insane.

"The sceptic James Randi put up a million dollars to be claimed by anyone who can demonstrate 'supernatural' powers. There should be a queue round the block. No-one's claimed it yet." (The offer has been open since 1996).