No subject is taboo ...comedy is there to help us get over tragedy – Gervais
AFTER LIFE creator and star Ricky Gervais has defended tackling “taboo subjects” such as suicide and cancer in his dark comedy, joking, “it’s notterry & June”.
He also backed using the C-word 19 times in one episode. The show centres on Gervais’ character Tony, a local newspaper reporter who is struggling to move on from the death of his wife (Kerry Godliman), drinking heavily, swearing and being abusive to the locals.
The huge Netflix hit, which has already been viewed
100 million times, will end with this third series – despite fans and cast wanting more, even a film.
Gervais, 60, says no topic is now off-limits: “I think that’s exactly right. I’ve always felt that but even I’ve worried about it. I thought, ‘What if it doesn’t work out like it was in my head’? It starts with a woman who has died of cancer and a man who is suicidal. I mean that’s notterry & June.”
Yet the intelligence and understanding of the audience is often underestimated, says Gervais.
“We second-guess people all the time, ‘Can they take that?’ – well, of course, they can because life is worse. No harm can come from discussing taboo subjects. It’s what comedy is for – to get us over stuff.we can laugh about it.” Choosing Netflix, he said, has allowed him to be bolder. He said: “The C-word happens about 19 times in this first episode. Netflix came along and said we don’t interfere, and with a global platform of hundreds of millions of people, it’s a no-brainer for me. I need to be left alone.
“The number of people who have come up to me and said I lost my brother, or lost my wife, then said, ‘That was me, that was me!’ They like seeing uncompromised things on telly because they’re already thinking it.”
He confirmed this current, third series will be the last. “This is definitely it. It is bitter-sweet because it seems mad to stop it now, I know that, I get that. But I think it’s right in the long run. It will be around for ever.”
After Life is currently available on Netflix
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