Ricky Gervais

We must honour those brave souls... working with Gervais

The people caught up in the terrible disaster of the Wokefinder's new series deserve our deepest sympathy, says Stewart Lee.

After Life: season two

As a comedy series with a soft emotional core, the show encapsulates the quintessentially British habit of using humour as a coping mechanism. Tony's change of heart offers fresh hope that if a grumpy old man can have a change of heart, anyone can. Fans, keep an eye out for season three!

Ricky Gervais interview

Not much has changed for Ricky Gervais in lockdown. He didn't go out much anyway, and he's got enough booze in the house for a nuclear winter. Dave Itzkoff took the chance to speak to him about targeting celebrity culture at the Golden Globes and the new series of After Life.

TV preview: Ricky Gervais's After Life

The first series of After Life saw Ricky's character learn some trite life lessons - or rather begin telling others about how wise he is - so it'll be interesting to see where this series goes.

Did Ricky Gervais predict Trump's bleach comments?

In a tweet posted on 6th March, 2016, Gervais not only guessed that Donald Trump would become President but also mentioned something that has recently been in the news in America: "The fact that there are warnings like "Do not drink" on bottles of bleach makes me realise that Donald Trump can become President."

Ricky Gervais's 'savage' takedown of James Corden

After Life fans are convinced Ricky Gervais has based the all-singing, all-dancing character James on talk show host James Corden.

Ricky Gervais is, take your pick, ever reinventive (a la Madonna, Lady Gaga, the royals) or ever mutating (the worst kind of spirally viruses, the royals). A year ago, in Tony Johnson, subject of his latest drama, After Life, he combined aspects of past characters: The Office's gloriously unself-aware Brent; the more savvy Andy Millman in Extras; the saccharine platitudes that sat so ill in Derek alongside gags about mental health or other disabilities. After Life was a surprising runaway hit on Netflix, for an arguably slight comedy about a very singular, small-town man's depression after the loss of his wife, and how an angry man learned to be kind again.

I happen to like Gervais. Many don't. I relish his takes on some complex aspects of life - freedom of speech, organised religion, disorganised religion of the variety that tends to revere big lumps of rock or small ones of crystal, people who describe themselves as "people people". I like his loyalty to actors, although with such talents as Kerry Godliman and Ashley Jensen around it's surely not hard. And Gervais, bless, has done it again - same local paper, staffed by the soft of brain and low of self-esteem, same gallery of township grotesques, same lonely flat occupied by lovely dog Brandy and many long nights of the soul, pills to hand and large glass of red and videos of his late Lisa.

And I think I see what he's trying to do with the formula. To show how every single one of life's travails, when it angers one inordinately, can be surmounted, no matter one's grief, by a half-sigh of tolerance, of kindness - as long as the sugar is intercut with Gervais showing how mean he, and life, can be.

Part of the problem with this six-part second series is the scatological glee with which he hugs these acid segments. So it's not enough to have a cartoonishly unempathetic therapist; Paul Kaye has to make Chris Finch (The Office's rampant misogynist) look achingly woke. Not enough to have am-dram spoiled by a fat kid farting - he has to soil himself on stage. And, no matter that the arc of this second series is ultimately rewarding, hugely if quietly aided by the likes of Penelope Wilton and Diana Morgan - I'm just not sure whether this second journey is worth the lack of laughs it takes to get there. Because it is, indeed, just less funny. And if the message is the only thing, never mind the laughs crude or otherwise, I'm not sure whether it's worth the saying.

After Life series 2, Netflix review

Ricky Gervais's study of bereavement continues.

Ricky Gervais receiving 'so many letters' from widowers

TV and film star Ricky, 58, says that his Netflix show, where he plays a suicidal widower grieving for his wife, has really resonated with viewers as it returns for second series.