The Office co-creator Stephen Merchant hit with lifetime ban from British shop

Actor and comedian Stephen Merchant has revealed how he was banned from a high street outlet after criticising the company in an interview.

The 49-year-old co-creator of hit BBC shows ‘The Office’ and ‘The Outlaws’ discovered the ban from High and Mighty when a costume department worker, shopping for him, was told by a shop assistant: “I’m buying these for an actor.”

The Mirror reports how Stephen, who is 6ft 7in tall, told the Sunday Express: “The woman behind the counter said, ‘Which actor? ‘… ‘Is it him? ‘” before pulling out the interview and declaring, “She pulled out a copy of the Time Out interview and said, ‘We’re not selling clothes to him.’”.

Stephen also shared on a US talk show how he used to carry three wallets while out in London, two of which were decoys in case of muggers.

However, his cunning plan fell through when a thief demanded his phone instead. Recalling the incident to Seth Meyers, he joked: “They were walking away and I was like, ‘Do you want a wallet? ‘”.

Adding to his string of comical misadventures, Stephen revealed during his latest stand-up special an awkward encounter where he mistook a woman’s intentions. He thought she was making advances, but she merely wanted to use him as a rendezvous point, saying: “I was in Trafalgar Square at New Year. So I was watching the New Year fireworks.”

“It was approaching midnight and a woman kind of was looking at me and I was like, ‘Hang on, here we go. Game on. This lady’s seen me on the telly. She wants a little piece of Stephen. She’s only human.’ And she came up and she said, ‘Are you going to be here for a while?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I am!’

“And she said, ‘Great, because my friends and I have arranged to meet back at you.’ Because I’m 6ft 7in. I’m normally about a foot and a half taller than most people in any crowd. She said, ‘Don’t worry. You can still move around. We’ll see you wherever you are.’ And yeah, by about five past midnight, a bunch of people were just gathered around me.”

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