Life's Too Short

So, are we laughing at the dwarf or are we laughing with him? Once you'd decided which side of the height-challenged fence you were sitting on, you could get on with the rather more important business of deciding whether new Ricky Gervais comedy Life's Too Short is any good or not.

And it is - good, that is - in a 'law of diminishing returns, it's not The Office', kind of way. Gervais and Stephen Merchant are masters of the faux-documentary genre and, in Warwick Davis, Life's Too Short's dwarf-in-residence, they've found the perfect vehicle for taking the rise out of egotistical self-delusion. Which, come to think of it, is pretty much what all their stuff is about.
Built around a video diary documenting Davis's disintegrating life and career - from the heights of a Star Wars Ewok, he's now reduced to begging for crumbs from agents Gervais and Merchant - Life's Too Short has as little to do with life as a dwarf as Towie does with Essex. It's about scrambling for survival on life's seething ant-heap: and if that means a spot of Ricky - grovelling, so be it.

'How does he get away with it?' pondered Liam Neeson of Gervais's career. He'd stopped by at Gervais's office for comedy tips and proceeded (hilariously) to reveal a total sense of humour bypass. How indeed? Gervais's smug style hovers on the jokey butt-cheek of self-parody but, even though you know he's laughing at us, not with us, you can't stop yourself from giggling.

One of the questions you might ask about Life's Too Short, the new comedy from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, is how it would have worked if its central character wasn't a dwarf. Life's Too Short is built around an actor called Warwick Davis, who plays a comically tweaked version of himself. Like the real Warwick, this one was an Ewok in Return of the Jedi and runs a talent agency hiring out other dwarfs ("I've had a lot of success and this is my chance to pay that forward"). Unlike the real Warwick (I assume), this one is in the middle of a messy divorce and looking for a way to pay off a massive tax bill. And one of the striking things is how much of the comedy depends less on his physical stature than on his status, as a man whose opinion of himself is considerably larger than the world's. Warwick is playing Warwick but he's also playing Brent/Millman/Gervais, that slippery amalgam of real character and comic invention that props up nearly everything Gervais does.

You saw it again and again, in the unmistakably Brentish way that Warwick added self-serving footnotes to embarrassing footage ("Oohh..." he said nervously, as his estranged wife lets rip. "Showing off"); in the little sideways glances at the camera; in the unwitting revelations of his self-centredness. None of those jokes would be substantially different if Davis was two feet taller. Similarly, Warwick's incompetent accountant (who doesn't know how to do percentages on his calculator) would be equally funny with an averagely sized client. And the cameo in which Liam Neeson turned up at Gervais and Merchant's office for advice on comedy improvisation didn't even need Warwick to be in the room (though he actually was there, keeping a chair warm). A lot of it, in other words, would have worked in exactly the same way, though it would have been a good deal more vulnerable to charges of recycling.

Which leaves us with the jokes that are inextricably related to Davis's height. Some of these play mischievously with prejudices. "You're a dwarf. How can you not know 'Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho'?" Warwick said to one of his performers incredulously. Others exploit his height, such as a long sequence in which he had to enlist a scornful passer-by to help him get into Gervais and Merchant's office (the door buzzer was too high). And one or two edge us uncomfortably close to simply laughing at little people. As Warwick pompously compared himself to Martin Luther King and talked of his dream that "one day dwarfs will walk equally", his rhetoric was undermined by the sight of him falling out of his car. It's a punchline moment, but is it a joke about a self-deceiving man or one whose legs don't reach the ground? I'm still not entirely sure, and I suspect that Gervais in particular would be happy about that. If you want to take offence, be his guest. He's certainly made it easy for you. But be warned that you may have to suppress a laugh as you do it, and then think about what exactly you're suppressing.

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Review: Life's Too Short

Yes, we're laughing at Warwick Davis, but that is very much his intention, and the 'com' of his character far outweighs the 'sit' of his stature. Gervais and Merchant have pulled another one out of the hat.

Life's Too Short opener gets mixed reaction from fans

Fans of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have offered mixed reviews of the comedy duo's new series Life's Too Short, which stars Warwick Davis as a parody of himself.

Review: Life's Too Short, 1.1 - series premiere

I've already noticed that deadpan Neeson's hilarious scene is doing the rounds online ("I'm always making lists. In fact, that's probably why Steven Spielberg cast me as Oscar Schindler in Schindler's List") That's to be expected, of course, but it again speaks to the problem here that Life's Too Short needs to prove that Warwick's the star and YouTube clips of his antics can be just as popular. Otherwise, why not just make a third series of Extras set in America if the celebrities parodying themselves is still all we're really interested in here.

Warwick Davis on Life's Too Short

Being 3ft 6in has never stopped Warwick Davis from getting what he wants, from a role as an Ewok to his own Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant sitcom Life's Too Short.

If you saw Karl Pilkington's recent Sky series An Idiot Abroad, you'll have seen him phoning Britain's leading dwarf actor Warwick Davis to check whether a Dwarf Village he'd visited in China was politically correct. Davis assured him, quite angrily, that it wasn't.

So you might be surprised to find Davis starring here in another dwarf-based jape, also made by and featuring Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais.

In this mockumentary, Davis plays a version of himself as he attempts to raise his profile as "a sophisticated dwarf about town". It's screamingly funny, and if Davis chooses to send himself up, who are we to judge?

Nobody complained when he played an Ewok, which is ­basically a sci-fi teddy bear.

Shaun Williamson is in it too - continuing his gag from Extras, but the funniest bit is a cameo from Liam Neeson who reveals he's branching out into comedy.

Miss this at your peril.

This spoof documentary from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, starring 3ft 6in actor Warwick Davis as a fictionalised, David Brentified version of himself, contains all their tricks: bemused expressions; awkward looks to camera. But it takes no prisoners and is very funny. Davis displays fine comic chops as he hustles for acting work, mismanages his finances and grapples with his failing marriage, plus there's a cracking scene with Liam Neeson failing to grasp the basic concepts of comedy.

I sat before Life's Too Short, arms crossed and daring it to be funny because I really wanted to be offended AND unamused. A comedy series about dwarves? Who the hell would write such a thing? (Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.)

But Life's Too Short isn't a comedy about dwarves, though it does have a dwarf star - the urbane, winning Warwick Davis, a dwarf actor (Return of the Jedi, Harry Potter) down on his luck. His wife's thrown him out, he's almost bankrupt and the work has dried up. Even clients at his dwarves-only casting agency are bad-tempered and resentful.

Though it stars Gervais doing his Gervaisy thing (the sly looks to camera, the faux puzzlement) he is eclipsed by Davis playing a version of himself. But everyone is overshadowed by Liam Neeson, who is majestically unfunny as a humourless Liam Neeson ("I'm always making lists. That's probably why Steven Spielberg
cast me as Oskar Schindler") who earnestly wishes to become a stand-up comedian.