Ricky Gervais

There's a one-off Ricky Gervais comedy-drama on Channel 4 tonight called Derek (10pm).

It's a bit of a departure from Gervais' normal stuff, the main character being a simple but honest guy who works in an old people's home (alongside his pal Dougie, played by Karl Pilkington, who I have to say doesn't seem to be acting much).

It's hard to imagine this one would have got commissioned without the involvement of Ricky Gervais.

He writes, directs and stars in this one-off comedy drama about a simple soul called Derek who works in an old people's home.

His mate Karl Pilkington is in it too (as Dougie), in what is easily the worst hairpiece in TV history.

There are occasional smiles, but this doesn't have the savagery of Getting On, the BBC comedy on how we treat the elderly.

This is a much more sincere, poignant little piece and although Derek and his co-worker Hannah (Kerry Godliman) love their jobs, the fact remains that most people have a horror of ending up in a place like this - even if it is only on the telly.

Despite some brilliant cameos from Liam Neeson and Johnny Depp, we're thrilled to see Ricky Gervais leave Life's Too Short behind and return to the workplace sitcom. Gervais' new Channel 4 special is set in a retirement home and features the acting debut of An Idiot Abroad presenter Karl Pilkington as Dougie the caretaker. While some (particularly fellow comic Stewart Lee in the Guardian) have pre-emptively damned Derek as insulting, others are praising the script and calling for a full series - all we know is that we can guarantee #derek will be trending on twitter tonight...

Derek represents something of a trap for critics hoping to hammer home the idea of Ricky Gervais-as-heartless-bastard. Carrying out an unspecified role in a provincial care home, Derek's an eccentric. Indeed, with his permanent gurn, inadvertent gift for physical mishap and general air of bewilderment, some might assume that he's in some way disabled and draw the obvious conclusions about his creator's motives. Gervais says not. Instead, Derek is marginal. He bonds with the old folk, indulges in nonsensical conversations with caretaker Dougie (a debut role for Karl Pilkington) and imagines himself as a possible suitor to the home's manager Hannah, who, while lonely and unfulfilled, is way out of his league.

Derek is hard to judge on the basis of a pilot. Some of the comedy is incredibly broad. Derek sits on a pie. Derek falls in a pond. We're laughing at him, but, before long, we're sympathising too. A couple of scenes hint at the show's potential tenderness and tragedy and suggest that a series - which Gervais is already writing, without frequent partner Stephen Merchant - would be worthwhile.

So I suppose we'd better get Derek (Channel 4), Ricky Gervais's little (comedy?) drama set in an old peeps' home, out of the way first. To begin with, I can't see what all the fuss is about. OK, so the title character isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but is that really mocking disabled and mentally ill people? Can you ban simpletons, even ones who are bathed in a warm light? Baldrick, Bean, Bottom, all cancelled, by PC plod?

I think the columnists and critics who have been sharpening their pencils to stick into Ricky's eyes are doing so because of previous lapses in judgment. I mean Mong-gate of course. But Derek isn't controversial.

Trouble is, nor is it very good. The whole mockumentary thing feels tired now (and what are these films being made, do you ever wonder that?). There's a lack of confidence about it too. The humour (if you can call it that) yo-yos between standard been-there Gervais Office squirmy awkwardness and sit-in-a-custard-pie/fall-in-the-pond slapstick.

Most of all, though, I'm not feeling the character - I'm neither moved nor amused by him. In The Office and Extras, Gervais was basically playing himself. He was someone you could loathe and love at the same time; you could begin to understand how it would feel to be him. Derek, a much more sympathetic character, is someone else, and so requires more acting. Which, perhaps, given this awkward show of haminess, isn't his forte. Neither is it Karl Pilkington's, as Derek's sort-of mate - not much hope of best supporting Bafta, I'd say, though he's probably straying less far from his real self.

Its a shame. I really wanted it to be good. To shut up the Gervais bashers, for one, who may even be more annoying than Gervais himself. But also - and mainly - because he used to be so good. Remember?

Ricky Gervais in Derek, Channel 4, review

In Derek, Gervais seems to have found a character that he relates to deeply.

Warwick Davis: 'Audience matters more than critics'

Warwick Davis confirmed that he, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are currently writing a follow-up one-off special of Life's Too Short, rather than a second series.

Derek: Gervais the manipulator

I expected Derek to be a total car crash of a project, all from a man who spent weeks on Twitter insisting 'mong' does not refer to the disabled. Ricky Gervais did not deliver an offensive show, but it did confirm all the absolute worst aspects of his post-Office career.

This is a Ricky Gervais programme for people who don't like Ricky Gervais. Derek Noakes (played by Gervais) is a retirement home worker with learning disabilities. He sports greasy hair and bad cardigans, but he always puts others first and is kind to the old people he looks after. He also loves Rolf Harris and Deal or No Deal.

So far so predictable: Gervais has seemingly picked another vulnerable target to poke fun at, while no doubt purporting to break down taboos. But remarkably this is not the case. Gervais is not making fun of Derek, or anyone, it seems - he's celebrating him, and the other outsiders who work in the home (including Karl Pilkington in his debut acting role as Dougie the caretaker, and Kerry Godliman who plays Derek's best friend Hannah). It's a genuinely fond and amusing script. When one of the old people at the home dies, Derek remembers the lady once telling him: "It's more important to be kind than clever or good-looking." "I'm not clever or good-looking... but I am kind," Derek says, holding back the tears. Gervais is apparently hoping this pilot episode will be commissioned for a full series but Channel 4 has billed it as a one-off comedy drama. They'd be fools to let it go.

Ricky Gervais writes and stars in this brave one-off about a man with learning difficulties working in an old people's home. It's another mock doc with lots of sad piano and pathos by the skip-load. The comedy is nonexistent. Derek sits on a pudding. Derek falls in the pond. "I'm not clever or good-looking, but I'm kind," he says, following this episode's emotionally pornographic denouement. Tonally, it's a three-legged puppy wearing both "Love me" and "Kick me" signs. Confusing.