Stephen Merchant

This animated rendering of Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington's weird podcast ponderings still makes for great late-night viewing. This time around they discuss the Ancient Greeks and what it would be like if Karl was president of society. Heaven help us.

Stephen Merchant quits as voice of Barclays

Comedian Stephen Merchant has quit as the voice of Barclays ads because of "increasing commitments in the US".

Radio 2 is saluting the best of British talent in their approach to the forthcoming London Olympics. Tonight's fanfare is for the great comedy writing duo of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, from Hancock's Half Hour to Steptoe and Son, their work on radio and TV broke away from the accepted broadcast comedy conventions (sketches, jokes, musical interludes) by developing characters and situations. Here's how they met, who they influenced, with tributes galore not least from presenter Stephen Merchant.

Stephen Merchant: Cancer is funny

Comedian Stephen Merchant claimed that he and writing partner Ricky Gervais have no taboos for TV shows, and even illnesses like cancer can be potentially funny.

This animated version of Gervais's fantastic podcasts - which also features quick-witted Stephen Merchant and Karl 'head like a f**king orange' Pilkington - returns for a third series. And this opener is one of the most hilarious episodes yet, focusing primarily on Karl's attempt to sell his latest movie idea to a pair of fictional film execs, personified by Gervais and Merchant. For those of you who enjoyed Pilkington's idea for a bizarre sci-fi romance starring Clive Owen (or is that 'Clive Warren'?), just wait until you hear the pitch for Bryan's Brain starring none other than Tom Cruise. This writer genuinely shed tears of laughter.

Ricky Gervais follows up Life's Too Short with a show about a simple, vulnerable man working in an old people's home. Brave, but this isn't the moment where Gervais is consumed by political incorrectness once and for all: Derek is nearly a brilliant reinvention.

You'd have to try hard to read Gervais's portrayal of slow, sweet Derek as mockery, and the sad ending is up there with David Brent's "Don't make me redundant" meltdown. Kerry Godliman shines in a supporting role as Hannah, the care worker who is Derek's best friend and is thwarted, selfless, burningly sad but endlessly compassionate - every moment she is on screen is sigh-inducing magic.

But Derek falters because Gervais, who writes and directs without Stephen Merchant, is too reliant on tropes from his previous work. The action is shot as a documentary about the characters, a device that doesn't add much and highlights the occasional, inappropriate similarity between Derek and Gervais's other creations. Casting Karl Pilkington as another of Derek's colleagues also breaks the spell, and sometimes the mix of slapstick and sensitive drama is uncomfortable.

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.

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.

Stephen Merchant: Aged five months

Here's Stephen Merchant - when he was just an Office junior.