Les Dennis

Les Dennis wants to head back to stand-up

Coronation Street star Les Dennis has revealed that he would love to make a return to stand-up comedy.

Les Dennis hopes to join Coronation Street full-time

Comedian and actor Les Dennis is set to return to Coronation Street and if he gets his way, it could be permanent.

'Thrilled' Les Dennis is latest addition to Corrie

Coronation Street is set to welcome a new arrival, in the shape of comedian and actor Les Dennis.

Neil Morrissey talks about Amanda Holden affair

Neil Morrissey, who has never said sorry to Les Dennis for the affair with his wife Amanda Holden, insisted the marriage was already on the rocks before he became involved

Amanda Holden sexually assaulted by a famous comedian

Amanda Holden has revealed she was sexually assaulted by a famous comedian while married to Les Dennis.

Adrian Edmondson wins Celebrity MasterChef 2013

Comic actor beats Les Dennis and Janet Street-Porter with 'mind-blowing' three-course meal of venison and sea bass.

Sadly, it looks as though there will be no second series of Life's Too Short, but my favourite comedy of 2011 enjoyed a last hurrah, thanks to a one-hour special that addressed many of the faults, and played to the strengths, of its first run.

Gone were the gratuitous physical humiliations visited upon star Warwick Davis, along with the David Brent mannerisms bequeathed him by writers Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

Instead, Davis was given free rein to explore the comic potential of his complex, conflicted and constantly embattled character. Rosamund Hanson provided scene-stealing support as dippy secretary Cheryl.

Extra helpings of guest stars playing either unflattering or unsympathetic versions of themselves were also served up. Shaun Williamson, Keith Chegwin and Les Dennis all made a welcome return - "Three Z-list celebrities make one D-list celebrity," encouraged Davis as they embarked on their All Star roadshow - with a surprise appearance from the former Hollywood star and one-time screen Batman Val Kilmer.

With an enthusiasm that bordered upon self-flagellation, Kilmer portrayed himself as a slightly deranged fantasist and maniacal con man who raises, and then shatters, Warwick's dreams of a sequel to Willow.

Painfully poignant, beautifully played and constantly inventive, this one-hour special conclusively proved that Life's Too Short's own end was also premature.

It may not be fashionable to approve of anything with Ricky Gervais's name on it. But this Life's Too Short Special (BBC2, Saturday) - with Val Kilmer, along with Les Dennis, Keith Chegwin, and Shaun Williamson joining Warwick Davis - is a piece of genius. There's nothing Gervais hasn't done before. An obsession with disability: check. Fading slebs making tits of themselves to highlight the horrors of the fame game: check. More squirminess than a sack of snakes with the squits: check. But it's done with such a breathtaking boldness that it's impossible not to gasp with a mixture of shock'n'awe. I mean he gets Chegwin to revisit not just his drunkenness but his nakedness too!

Actually the funniest moment is when Les, Keith and Shaun are sharing a hotel bed, to save money. "Not while I'm reading [Sartre as it happens]," says Shaun, when Cheggers reaches down to say hello to little Cheggers, if you know what I'm saying.

Then Gervais chucks in the curveball of touchingness (the other sort). It shouldn't be surprising - he usually does - but it somehow catches you off-guard. Especially poignant if you've just watched Kavana on The Voice.

"I used to be a lying, conniving, selfish little shit." Yes you did, Warwick Davis. But for the purposes of this one-off valedictory special, that won't do. Because if no one cared, that would prevent Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant from tacking on another of their increasingly trite redemptive endings. But is anyone really that bothered about Life's Too Short anyway? Surely not like they were about Extras - and certainly not like they were about The Office.

As we rejoin Warwick, he's 'a changed man'. He's kind, conscientious and generally rather likeable. So when this concluding cavalcade of horrors - which includes a mendacious Val Kilmer, the further self-abasements of Les Dennis and Keith Chegwin and yet more smug, sideline rubbernecking from the show's creators - dumps Warwick in the mire, we're supposed to feel his pain. Sadly, this particular group hug hasn't been earned, so the conclusion feels as hollow and joyless as the rest of the series.

Gervais & Merchant's dismal sitcom Life's Too Short returns unbidden for a one-off finale. Drab and mean-spirited, it sidelines its nominal star, Warwick Davis, in favour of the supposedly hilarious spectacle of ha-ha-has-beens Keith Chegwin, Shaun Williamson and Les Dennis making fools of themselves. It's truly desperate stuff.