Ricky Gervais

Gervais reveals there's an "even better" Derek special

Netflix viewers will see an extended version of the final moments at Broad Hill Nursing Home, as Ricky Gervais's thoughts turn to Life on the Road and Special Correspondents.

There are people who defend this mockumentary to the death, egged on by Ricky Gervais on his Twitter account, but it doesn't wash with me. It has amusing moments, but the show's always at its best when Gervais's insufferable Derek Noakes is off-screen. Lord knows why this performance earns Golden Globe nominations in the U.S, because it's a cringe-worthy mix of tic's and cartoonish body language. Derek's finale revolved around the wedding of saintly nursing home worker Hannah (Kerry Godliman) to her underwritten bin man boyfriend, which intersected with the expulsion of gross Kev (David Earl). Wisely, Derek's actual role was largely limited to a fairly sweet date with an unconvincingly adoring woman. One gets the sense Gervais, deep down, knows the multitude of ways this show and his character is flawed (he's not an idiot), but despite the fact the finale's a big improvement from the show's first series, it could never overcome the awkward mix of lowbrow gags and unearned sentimentality.

Derek, review, final episode: 'glib and manipulative'

The feel-good aura in Ricky Gervais's comedy drama verged on claustrophobic and was laced with irony.

Ricky Gervais's inexplicably clunky "thing" about a kind man who works in a nursing home. I can find no comedy in it and it lacks the emotional truth required for a drama. It concluded last night with a 65-minute special featuring a wedding, a baby, an anecdote about a bird with a broken wing and an alcoholic's redemption, all laced with Gervais's emotion-flavoured dialogue that sounds as if it should spring from real feelings but doesn't.

Everyone looked embarrassed except Colin Hoult, one of the few good things in the last ever episode as Jeff, a self-contained side character, criminally underused. On the strength of his two or three lines, you could sense a whole life going on under the surface. It wasn't in the lines but the performance, both understated and totally eye-grabbing. I'd like to see a show called Jeff, but written by someone with less of a tin ear for sentiment.

Derek Noakes vs David Brent: who would win in a fight?

It's the all-important debate: which of Ricky Gervais' comedy characters from The Office and Derek would triumph in a head-to-head?

11 perfect moments from the Derek Christmas special

Ricky Gervais has already hinted that the Derek Christmas special will be the last episode, and the plot of tonight's special certainly seemed to confirm that it is, tying all the plotlines off.

Derek preview

If there's one man who knows how to do a Christmas special, it's Ricky Gervais. And luckily, he's also very good at ending a series.

Ricky Gervais: I always aim to polarise people

The Derek and Night at the Museum star says, "for everyone who thinks my face brings joy, someone wants to punch the television, and I think that's an important thing"

Radio Times review

The last time Cameron Diaz was on The Graham Norton Show he slightly lost his grip. Give Diaz an inch and she'll launch into one of her daffy monologues about dating or - as happened last time - what you might describe as women's personal grooming.

On that occasion she had Richard Ayoade quietly dying next to her; this time Ricky Gervais and Ben Stiller will be on hand, partly to publicise their latest Night at the Museum movie and partly to keep La Diaz in check. Her co-star in the Annie remake, Jamie Foxx, is also squeezing onto the sofa, as is EastEnders' Danny Dyer and Australian comic actress Rebel Wilson. It's quite a line-up.

In the Derek Christmas special, the swansong for Ricky Gervais's contentious creation, pregnant Hannah is pushed to the limits of her patience by booze-addled sex case Kev and kicks him out of the home. But when he ends up in hospital, he's told that if he doesn't stop drinking he'll die. For a minute it's almost sad, then it's ruined by a skin-crawlingly sentimental montage. Fans of Derek may paint its detractors as twisted-up cynics, all black inside and incapable of emotion, but it's good riddance to this lazy, mawkish toss.