Gervais beefs up his security

RICKY Gervais has hired security guards for his London gigs in the wake of the knife attack on Sir Salman Rushdie.

The 61-year-old, pictured, has brought in a private team to protect him so he can ‘ have a laugh and relax’ on stage at a series of intimate joke-testing shows at

Leicester Square Theatre. A source told The Sun he was ‘taking no chances’ regarding his safety and ‘hasn’t wasted any expense’. It follows the attack this month on Sir Salman, 75, who had a fatwa issued against him by Iran’s leader in 1989 for his book The Satanic Verses.

Gervais, known for his controversial gags, was forced to defend making jokes about ‘taboo subjects’ after his Netflix special SuperNature came under fire in May.

He told BBC1’s The One Show that comedy should help ‘get us through stuff’, adding: ‘Most offence comes from when people mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target.’