Ricky Gervais offers signed DVDs to NTA voters

Ricky Gervais has been busy drumming up support for Derek at the National TV Awards and is even offering fans signed DVDs if they vote for the show.

I don't know what happened to Ricky Gervais, but the grace he earned from The Office has finally run out. Derek is painfully unfunny and misguided in so many ways, but the most galling thing about this so-called comedy is how Gervais has convinced himself it's a significant, important and affective piece of social commentary. It's not. It's just lazy manipulation hiding its sins behind the fact it's ostensible about elderly care in modern Britain. But if that were true, why are the genuine old folks just silent stooges or background extras, as Gervais pulls faces next to grumpy best-mate Karl Pilkington in a comb-over wig? Abysmal. Even the title's font is bad.

Ricky Gervais and 'Derek': A defence

Derek, which comes out on DVD this week, is perhaps the bravest move of Gervais' career so far.

Ricky Gervais interview

An interview with Ricky Gervais to promote Derek being shown on Netflix in the US.

Derek to make Netflix debut in September

Ricky Gervais' most recent TV series, Derek, is to make its debut on Netflix later this year, it has been announced.

The emotional response to the show grew steadily each week and the reaction to the finale is still going on. I've never had a reaction like it to be honest.

Not even The Office Xmas Special seemed to have people declaring that they cried their eyes out for the whole episode. Also, what's amazing about the response to Derek is all the admissions like, "I hated it at first and now it's my favourite thing you've done."

I think this may be a reflection of social media too, obviously. People know they are telling me what they feel directly so they want to be honest about a personal response as opposed to a colder critique. I must admit I am most proud of the emotional response to the characters and themes of the show as that was by far the most difficult thing about it.

It was nearly impossible to try to cram as much depth of character and story as The Office or Extras into 7 minutes less each week. I had to use broader brush strokes and cut to the chase. I did this by concentrating on one plot line and one main theme each week. I think the people who liked the show the most, understood this the most.

At the end of the day though, the average person doesn't sit and analyse if, and then why, they liked something or not. I liked it. I laughed. I cried. And that's the end of it for most. And why not? It's entertainment when all is said and done; not philosophy or religion. It filled half an hour and then I watched something else. That's good enough for me.

I started making notes for Series 2 today. So exciting starting again. And daunting of course.

Derek - Series 1 finale review

Derek isn't for me - quite apart from the fact it leans heavily on basic tricks learned from The Office, but hasn't the skill to use them well or progress them, which shows how poorly Ricky Gervais has evolved since 2003.

Derek showed his inner niceness in show's finale

The series finale of Derek might have been sentimental, but it packed an emotional punch which left you longing for more.

Derek: Series 1 - Review

Derek is an odd show - watchable light viewing, always a couple of good lines from Pilkington, charmingly straight-forward in a fraught world, weirdly preoccupied with montages, but I'm not sure it's saying anything much, or possibly even at all.

For the finale, Ricky Gervais takes the soppy undercurrents of this series and makes them a gushing torrent. A care home resident dies, which provides an excuse for the characters to deliver homilies and reflections on their lives to an imaginary interviewer. "When I does nice things, I feels nice. And when I does bad things, I feels bad," Derek explains helpfully. Even lairy drunk Kevin gives a lecture on the importance of not taking shortcuts in life, as the best shortcut is kindness.

There's barely a joke in the whole thing, but infuriatingly there are also hints of how well Gervais can write when he's not taking shortcuts himself. Worst shortcut of all: swamping scene after scene with Coldplay - again.