Ricky Gervais has been announced as the winner of this year's Richard Dawkins Award, for 'raising consciousness of atheism and secular values'.

The Richard Dawkins Award is linked to the US-based Center For Inquiry. CFI campaigns to remove the influence of religion in science education and public policy, and to eliminate the stigma that surrounds atheism and non-belief.

The Richard Dawkins award has been presented annually since 2003. Past winners have included philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett, activist and feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and actor and writer Stephen Fry.

Gervais will be presented with the award at the Grade II-listed Art-Deco venue Troxy in London's Limehouse district on Tuesday 3rd September 2019. The event will also see him take part in an unscripted conversation with Dawkins "in which everything is on the table and nothing is sacred." They will be joined by host, best-selling author and professor of psychology, Richard Wiseman. Tickets

Ricky Gervais says: "I have won many awards in my time, but this is the first for being reasonable, which, in the present climate, makes it the most important."