Ricky does it again

TV SUPPLEMENT: LIFE'S TOO SHORT

Ricky Gervais's rise to megastardom has been little short of miraculous. The success of "The Office" on both sides of the Atlantic placed him above so many artistes who have swept all before them in Britain, but still failed to crack the much harder American market. But then a few unkind remarks about American celebs, like John Lennon's intemperate comment about being more popular than Jesus 4 decades earlier, threatened to nullify the effect of all his brilliant comedic skills.

Ricky has had his detractors over here too, not least my friend Pat Graham, who through his Smileofthedecade blog has raised questions about his apparently growing obsession with the cult of celebrity. Pat cites his Twitter pronouncements, which have passed me by as I am not yet initiated into the arcane world of Mr Tweet. In which case I doubt if Pat will have been too impressed with Gervais/Merchant's latest offering, "Life's too Short" which features talent from the Glitterati in every episode: Johnny Depp, Trevor Nunn, Cat Deeley et al put in appearances, all foils to the quite outstanding performance of Warwick Davies as the Dwarf who would be King of stage and screen, but under the sheer weight of his own unpleasantness fails spectacularly every time.

Ricky has got himself in hot water in Britain too with his unashamed comments about "Mongs" and other disabilities, but in this series he has cocked a triumphant snook at those in the PC brigade (and here I do not refer to Pat) who would like to claim you shouldn't make jokes about "difference". Ricky has shown that nothing is taboo, as long as it's funny- which every episode of Life's too Short so is: wickedly, sqirmingly, riotously funny.

Good on you Ricky- you're one of our best men- keep it up!