Derek

Ricky Gervais interview

Ricky Gervais tells Metro why critics are wrong when they say Derek, his new comedy series about a care home worker, mocks people with learning difficulties.

So Derek picked up the top comedy prize at the New York Short Film Festival. I'm probably more exited about this than any of the Baftas, Golden Globes or Emmys. I'm not sure if that's because it's been such a long time in development, or that it was criticised by some before they'd even seen it and now they've gone a bit quiet, or just because I love Derek more than any other character I've ever created. I actually wish he was real. Maybe I'm having a breakdown? And if I am, who cares? I'll just be Derek forever. Haha.

I've nearly finished writing the series, which I'm filming in September. It will air early next year.

Ricky Gervais eyes Derek in the States

Ricky Gervais wants to export new comedy Derek to the US.

The day before the one-off comedy Derek screened on Channel 4, Ricky Gervais announced on Twitter that he was "slowly writing" a full series.

For a particularly vocal section of the media, that writing probably can't proceed slowly enough. Of all Gervais's creations, Derek Noakes is both the nicest and the most instantly reviled. Never mind that he works in an elderly care home, guilelessly chatting to the residents while clipping their toenails and watching Deal Or No Deal: Derek, we've been told, is a monster.

Or at least his creator is, for daring to invent a character whose regrettable hairstyle and awkward carriage imply some sort of learning difficulty. Or does it? Gervais claims Derek is just someone on the margins of society, falling somewhere between Baldrick and Frank Spencer. But on screen, as he jutted out his chin like Monty Python's Gumby, I felt myself not so much cringe as physically recoil.

The niggling feeling that something is off actually helps sustain the overfamiliar fake documentary format. If a filmmaker did come across a subject as perplexing as Derek, you could well believe they would want to have two cameras on him at all times. And the way Gervais plays to those cameras, flicking his eyes between them, at once rigidly self-conscious and plausibly natural in his behaviour, demonstrates his mastery of a genre he single-handedly propelled into the mainstream. It's hard to imagine anyone else playing this problematic part with as much skill, albeit to such uncomfortable effect.

The real problem with Derek, though, is that it's not that funny. There's a lot of slapstick but - one notably satisfying headbutt aside - it just seems clumsy rather than effervescent. The necessarily drab care home setting also begins to feel oppressive, even during the brisk running time.

But perhaps the most depressing thing about Derek is that the media kerfuffle has completely overshadowed the work of Kerry Godliman, who is heartbreakingly plausible as Hannah, Derek's protective workmate who clearly feels life is passing her by but isn't sure how to achieve any existential traction. I found my viewing experience improved by imagining Hannah was the hero of the piece, with Derek reduced to the role of sidekick. Karl Pilkington and his terrible wig, on the other hand, should probably just stick to travel shows.

Derek: The most cynical TV show I've ever seen

As the father of an autistic son, author Christopher Stevens finds Derek - Ricky Gervais's new comedy-drama about a care-home worker - vile, cynical and dishonest.

TV Review: Derek

Derek is a strange little show, describing itself as a "comedy/drama" while sort of being neither.

Ricky Gervais's latest mock-doc, Derek, set in an old people's home, was preceded, like last year's Life's Too Short, by a hullabaloo deflecting attention from the fact of its being not much cop. This time, controversy centred on the mental health of Gervais's protagonist, a hunched, open-mouthed care assistant. Was Gervais mocking people with learning difficulties? What was indisputable was that his physically crude performance stuck out from those of his understated co-stars like a Chuckle Brother in Ken Loach.

Indeed, this pilot was all over the place, neither funny nor dramatic nor documentary-like, thanks to an obtrusively saccharine piano soundtrack. And if it was too sentimental to be offensive, then it was certainly condescending, its pitiable characters suggesting that working in social care presupposes being dysfunctional. With its mood of geriatric torpor, what it most recalled was BBC Four's Getting On, a far superior show that, incidentally, owed a lot to The Office - evidence, all in all, of how far Gervais hadn't come.

We shouldn't assume that Ricky Gervais spends too much time worrying about bad PR, but his latest outing in Derek - a one-off mockumentary about a care-home worker with learning difficulties - went some way to appease critics of his cheerfully ironic slant on differently abled people. Well, further, shall we say, than his sitcom about dwarves.

Gervais's talent for creating mischief offstage increasingly makes it difficult to view him through fresh eyes when he's on it. But there were no "mong" moments here. And if his chin-thrusting gurn in the role of the slow-moving Derek impressed more as a feat of endurance than dramatic ingenuity over the 35 minutes (the threat of lockjaw surely loomed over this production), that was no reason to doubt his sincerity. Derek bobbed eagerly among the old folk, hogging the roving camera like a child with a favourite uncle to entertain. It didn't take long to see his world of small pleasures and mutual give and take.

It's true that Gervais found room for a little light slapstick - once Derek had contrived to sit in his own rhubarb and custard it was only a matter of time before he toppled into the fishpond - but you didn't get the idea that we were there to poke fun at him. Derek was dim but he was kind and won kindness in return. And there was only one side to be on when he was baited in the pub by "chavs" (as they were described in the credits; Gervais hasn't quite lost his appetite for tweaking the noses of Guardian types), though the tone wobbled into farce when Hannah - manager of the home, and Derek's minder - was required to deliver justice with an unlikely comedy headbutt.

There was a gentle romantic subplot featuring Hannah - a familiar tongue-tied man-yearner in her 30s - and a handsome visitor, while Gervais's pet idiot-philosopher Karl Pilkington (handyman-bus driver Dougie) in a bad wig offered his usual baleful observations. But not much could halt the drift towards sentimentality, which started with Derek going off to buy a lottery ticket for a much-loved frail, elderly resident accompanied by the sort of plaintive piano that could only signal bad news. Derek tugged too importunately at the heartstrings to achieve pathos but I suppose there are worse crimes than trying too hard.

Derek - Review

An interesting half hour, then, for the sight of Ricky Gervais taking a step out of his comfort zone into almost-straight drama. Whether the show itself entirely worked, I don't know - it seemed more a showcase for his portrayal of Derek than having a strong drive of its own.