Derek

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.

The cast of Derek on the special, Gervais & TV kindness

Is it really the end for the Channel 4 comedy? Kerry Godliman, Holli Dempsey and Brett Goldstein are all keen to return to Broad Hill Care Home in the future...

Derek: 5 things we want from the emotional finale

As we get ready to wave goodbye to the lovable care worker, here's what we're hoping for from the last episode.

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: The Special - what did you think?

That's it! Derek and the residents of Broad Hill Care Home have graced our screen for the very last time, and we want your thoughts...

Derek: The Special review

If you're already a fan of Derek, there is plenty to enjoy in The Special. It's a downbeat, if cautiously optimistic, ending to a show that has always been preoccupied with life's darker aspects. It may prove too gloomy and peculiar to win Gervais any new fans or to impress his doubters, but that may be the point. After all, he stopped paying attention to popular opinion a long time ago.

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"

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.

Six things you should know about the Derek special

From wedding bells to hospital beds, the final episode of Ricky Gervais's Channel 4 comedy offers a fitting farewell to Broad Hill...