After Life

After Life is the first series Ricky Gervais wrote and directed alone for Netflix. It ran for three series of six episodes between 2019 and 2022 and arrived after the more divisive Derek, his earlier attempt to put open sentiment at the centre of a sitcom. This time the mix found a large audience, and the show won the National Television Award for Best Comedy twice.

Gervais plays Tony, a reporter on the Tambury Gazette, a free paper whose stories run to unusual vegetables and local birthdays. His wife Lisa, played by Kerry Godliman in the home videos he watches each night, has died of breast cancer, and he has decided that cruelty is a kind of freedom. Tom Basden plays his patient brother-in-law and editor Matt. David Bradley is his father, slipping away in a care home, and Penelope Wilton is Anne, a widow he meets on a bench in the cemetery. Ashley Jensen, Diane Morgan and Paul Kaye fill out a cast of regulars in a small town that Gervais clearly loves.

Critics were divided, and the series sits at 72 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes. Some found its swings between insult and sentiment too sharp. Audiences answered differently, with an IMDb score above eight from more than 170,000 votes. Netflix and the suicide prevention charity CALM later installed benches like Tony and Anne's in parks across the UK, as part of a mental health campaign.