Life’s Too Short

‘I used to be a lying, conniving, selfish little shit.’ Yes you did, Warwick Davis. But for the purposes of this one-off valedictory special, that won’t do. Because if no one cared, that would prevent Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant from tacking on another of their increasingly trite redemptive endings. But is anyone really that bothered about ‘Life’s Too Short’ anyway? Surely not like they were about ‘Extras’ – and certainly not like they were about ‘The Office’.

As we rejoin Warwick, he’s ‘a changed man’. He’s kind, conscientious and generally rather likeable. So when this concluding cavalcade of horrors – which includes a mendacious Val Kilmer, the further self-abasements of Les Dennis and Keith Chegwin and yet more smug, sideline rubbernecking from the show’s creators – dumps Warwick in the mire, we’re supposed to feel his pain. Sadly, this particular group hug hasn’t been earned, so the conclusion feels as hollow and joyless as the rest of the series.