RICKY GERVAIS

As a man who credits all of his success to his beloved partner, the character Ricky Gervais has created for his new show is very close to his heart.

The star plays Tony in sitcom After Life – a man struggling to cope following the death of his wife of 25 years.

And Ricky insists that if he ever lost his long-term partner and rock, Jane Fallon, he would unravel in the same way.

Ricky, 57, says: “Jane went to Brighton once to visit her mum, and the boiler went and I didn’t know how to do it, so I was on the couch under a blanket with the cat listening to internet radio for two nights, because I couldn’t get the telly working and it was like, honestly, it was like Castaway.

“And then when she went away, next time, she left me instructions. She drew a picture of the remotes and what they all did, and I still had to Facetime her.

“So I would fall apart without her. I mean, emotionally first.

“I don’t know how I’d cope it. You don’t know, do you?”

Ricky and Jane, 58, a TV producer turned novelist, met at University College London in 1982 through a mutual friend. After moving in together they both struggled financially, with Ricky’s pop career in new wave act Seona Dancing ending and Jane working as a jobbing script editor.

He said previously: “Our first flat was in King’s Cross and it was one room above some sort of seedy sauna, it was horrible but all we could afford. Our little bed was in this room and I could open the fridge from the bed.”

Thankfully, things are very different for them now – after his huge hits like The Office and Extras, they have homes in West London and New York.

And Ricky credits Jane with his massive success.

“She is the first for everything,” he told the Series Linked TV podcast. “I’ll go for a run and I’ll go, ‘I’ve written a joke for my stand up’ and I’ll tell it to her and she’ll go, ‘Please don’t do that in public’. And I know it’s a good one!”

In After Life, a six-part Netflix series, viewers discover Ricky’s character Tony and wife Lisa (played by Kerry Godliman) never had children

At one point, Tony tells a work peckish.”

In After Life, each episode begins with Tony watching clips of Lisa on his laptop as he tries to make sense of life without her. He reacts to his loss by deciding to

As Tony in his new Netflix sitcom As cringeworthy boss of The Office Tony with wife Lisa in After Life