One hoot in the grave: how death enlivened British TV comedy
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have gone all existential in The Trip to Greece. But they’re far from the only British comics riffing on the brevity of our existenceOver the past decade, The Trip has...
View ArticleAfter Life: Ricky Gervais continues to not be as funny as in The Office
The second series of the dark comedy won’t win back those who left the comedian behind two or three sitcoms ago I should probably preface this one by admitting that I think Ricky Gervais is funny. A...
View ArticleThe Willoughbys review – imaginative animated Netflix adventure
A manic pre-summer caper skirts near dark territory but remains a mostly kid-friendly tale of an unusual familyA year after Sony’s wonderfully inventive Into the Spider-Verse became the first...
View ArticleThe week in TV: After Life; Gangs of London; Emergence; Have I Got News for...
Ricky Gervais’s After Life struggles second time round, as 21st-century London’s answer to Peaky Blinders gets off to a violent start. And how long can live shows survive via video-call?After Life...
View ArticleWe must honour those brave souls… working with Ricky Gervais | Stewart Lee
The people caught up in the terrible disaster of the Wokefinder’s new series deserve our deepest sympathyEvery Tuesday at 8.45pm, I stand in the silent lane alone and bang my Le Creusets in support of...
View ArticleExtras: Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's take on celebrity is still...
As cringe-inducing as The Office, Extras lampoons Hollywood with great cheer while paying mournful tribute to failed dreamsWhen we first met Ricky Gervais in the early noughties, he played the...
View Article'Everyone considered it a bad idea': How The Office went from Slough to Scranton
As the latest collaboration between Greg Daniels and Steve Carell, Space Force, comes to Netflix, the stars of The US Office look back at the making of a modern classicGreg Daniels (showrunner): The UK...
View ArticleDear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You edited by Adam Kay – review
Tales of embarrassing injuries and moments of poignance, plus some poor efforts, in a revealing collection of essaysIn 2018 Daisy May Cooper, who writes and stars in the BBC comedy This Country, was...
View ArticleThe return of Spitting Image shows how toothless British satire has become |...
Satirists should lampoon the powerful – but the real bile is now reserved for those on the marginsI was, in my naivety, and perhaps nostalgia, rather looking forward to the reboot of Spitting Image....
View ArticleRewriting extinction: Ricky Gervais joins celebrities creating comics to save...
Peter Gabriel and Cara Delevingne also collaborate on picture stories to highlight species and ecosystem loss and fund projectsRicky Gervais is the latest celebrity to join an ambitious year-long...
View ArticleRicky Gervais review – white heterosexual millionaire titters at his own taboos
London PalladiumThe veteran provocateur, with his usual equal offensiveness policy, is amusing when he isn’t railing at straw men in this revival of his 2019 show Supernature“I’m a white heterosexual...
View ArticleStephen Merchant: ‘I see The Outlaws as a suburban, low-rent western’
The comic actor and writer on his new sitcom about community service, sharing Christopher Walken’s omelette and portraying a serial killerStephen Merchant, 46, is a writer, producer, director and comic...
View ArticleRicky Gervais on offence, anger and infuriating Hollywood: ‘You have to...
He has made a career out of winding people up in everything from The Office to his Golden Globes speeches – but is the comedian’s bark worse than his bite?Ricky Gervais’s assistant leads me past a...
View ArticleThe week in TV: Euphoria; Rules of the Game; Screw; After Life
Euphoria’s crazy teens return wilder than ever; the BBC’s new workplace drama should’ve kept things at the office; and it’s goodbye to Ricky Gervais’s tonally strange After LifeEuphoria (Sky Atlantic/...
View ArticleRicky Gervais Netflix special condemned by LGBTQ groups for ‘anti-trans rants...
Comedian criticised for ‘dangerous’ special, in which he says he supports trans rights while joking about the genitalia of trans women and HIVRicky Gervais’ new Netflix special SuperNature has drawn...
View Article‘It’s neocolonialism’: campaign to ban UK imports of hunting trophies condemned
African delegation says proposed new law ignores local voices and could harm rather than save wildlifeBritain’s international environment minister, Zac Goldsmith, and celebrity anti-trophy campaigners...
View ArticleActor David Earl: ‘Sex scenes? I’d rather go back to gardening’
The comedian on his Sundance hit film about a homemade robot, why Ricky Gervais persuaded him to give up his day job, and being a hopeless romanticThe actor, comedian and former gardener David Earl,...
View ArticleKick Out the Jams: The Story of XFM review – pioneering 90s indie radio...
Documentary charts the station’s rise from pirate outfit to Britpop champion, featuring alumni including Ricky Gervais and Steve LamacqThis account of the rise and fall of radio station XFM (by Ray...
View ArticleJames Corden responds to accusations he copied a Ricky Gervais joke
The host of The Late Show said he did not know the joke came from Gervais and did not explain how it came to be in his showJames Corden has responded to criticism that he copied a joke originally made...
View ArticleRicky Gervais: Armageddon review – smug, macho, playground bants
Apollo, ManchesterThere’s ample room in comedy to tease at woke over-earnestness but this weak and boorish set fails to engageRicky Gervais gives us a little lecture after curtain call tonight about...
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