Ricky Gervais has spoken for the first time at length about his next TV project, which will be a comedy series for Netflix.

The working title of the six-part series was Roll On Death, but he has decided to drop it because it "sounded too comical. I don’t know whether it’s a comedy or more of a six-part story. It’s like a series that’s adapted from a novel, I just haven’t written the novel.” He revealed the details in an exclusive interview with the Evening Standard. Read the full interview here. 

Gervais will play the “middle-aged, grumpy” lead role. “It’s a guy whose wife has died and he is in the depths of depression and he nearly kills himself. But the reason he doesn’t is that the dog is hungry, so that saves him for a while. He thinks about his crappy job, he works for a free newspaper.” 

The newspaper he is referring to is definitely not the Standard. Gervais says he was thinking more of things like the free papers he used to deliver in north London when he was trying to earn some money in his twenties.

“The only thing that gets him through it is: ‘I’m going to commit suicide one day but until then I’m going to do exactly what I want. I’m going to stop being a doormat and say exactly what I f***ing want’. He’s not scared of a mugger because they can’t kill his wife, he doesn’t give a f***, they can’t hurt him any more. This new-found thing liberates him. It’s dark but it’s funny and he gets embroiled with people he would never mix with in the underworld. It’s like he lives two lives.”

The cast includes Tony Way, who played Dontos Hollard in Game of Thrones and Tom Basden, who appeared in Life on the Road, 2016’s David Brent movie. 

Ricky Gervais is about to start a run at the Eventim Apollo. Tickets for all Humanity dates are available to buy here.

Picture: Rich Hardcastle.