Radio Times 15-21st January 2022

RICKY GERVAIS’S COMEDY After Life is much like the man who made it: funny, thought-provoking – and deliberately cringe-making. Which means the show, like the actor, is not to everybody’s taste. But if you accept that Gervais’s modus operandi is to “scrape his nails down the blackboard of life”, as Michael Buerk writes in our interview with this week’s cover star, then there’s much to be enjoyed in this final series of his Netflix hit. After Life, a show about a middle-aged man whose wife dies tragically early, has been called a study in loss – and that’s what makes it such a poignant piece. Although as Gervais tells us on page 8, he set out to make a grumpy-old-man sitcom as a riposte to cancel culture. Gervais’s character Tony deals…

Television Your TV guide starts on p37 ▸ 1 Stacey Dooley: Stalkers Wednesday from 6.00am BBC3/10.35pm BBC1 (11.05pm N Ireland/Scotland) Stacey Dooley reveals the stark details of lives devastated by stalking when she spends time with victims, perpetrators and support organisations in this disturbing two-part series. 2 Sue Perkins’s Big American Road Trip Sunday 9.00pm C4 Sue Perkins discovers the real Nomadland when she travels around California meeting people who have swapped their houses for homes on wheels. 3 Winterwatch Tuesday–Friday 8.00pm BBC2 Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams (above) are waiting to show you the winter wildlife to be discovered and enjoyed around the UK. FEATURE P16 ▸ 4 Rules of the Game Tuesday, Wednesday 9.00pm BBC1 Ruth Fowler’s nightmarish take on women’s treatment in the workplace clocks off this week. It’s a belting story, with Alison Steadman (above) cast against type as…

THIS MONTH MARKS the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the day in January 1972 when British paratroopers shot dead 13 civil rights marchers in Derry/Londonderry. It is the indelible stain on the reputation of the British Army in the 30-year conflict. The wounds are still open today, as no soldier has been prosecuted for the killings. John Kelly, whose 17-year-old brother, Michael, was one of the victims, still burns with anger. “Murder is murder, no matter how long ago,” he told me. “Justice has to be seen to be done.” There were fiercely conflicting accounts of what happened, with paratroopers insisting they came under fire from the IRA and those on the march vehemently denying it. But where did the truth lie? In 1998, in the run-up to the Good Friday…

WHAT WE WATCHED Who had the nation laughing in 2003? RT looked back at the previous year and listed the 50 most powerful names in TV comedy. The results put men in the top four places, with Graham Norton, Peter Kay, Ricky Gervais and Jonathan Ross deemed to have the best gag rate. The only women in the top ten were those working behind the scenes: BBC1 controller Lorraine Heggessey was praised for bringing Norton to her channel, while BBC2 controller Jane Root earned plaudits for airing sitcom Early Doors. You had to head to the late teens for the next female faces: Jan Ravens, who was among the Dead Ringers, and Jennifer Saunders. WHAT YOU SAID Complaints had been made about the move of thriller series 24 from BBC to Sky, but…

After Life all of series three available from Friday 14 January, 8.00am Netflix ‘I know more people who cried when their dog died than when their nan passed away’ OH, TO HAVE been a fly on the wall at Netflix corporate headquarters when Ricky Gervais first rocked up to pitch After Life… “Let’s get this straight, Ricky. It’s about this miserable, depressed nonentity called Tony, who’s suicidal after his wife died from cancer?” “Right.” “And while he’s working out whether or not to kill himself, he hangs out with a load of other miserable and depressed nonentities, telling each other how miserable and depressed they all are?” “Right.” “And this is a comedy, is it, Ricky?” After Life, now in its third and final series, is funny, in a dark and often poignant way. It’s cringe-making, too,…

Anti, otherwise known by her stage name Antilly the Wonder Hound (below), is a 25-inch, 30kg German shepherd who plays Brandy, faithful companion of Tony (Ricky Gervais) in After Life. She’s ten years old (around 66 in dog years) and has spent much of her life working on TV sets, appearing in everything from Midsomer Murders and Father Brown to Hitmen and Marcella. Anti’s life-long trainer and owner, Ashley Foster, taught her the tricks of the trade as a pup — everything from how to hit a mark to how to “go with”. The latter trick requires the dog to follow an actor throughout a scene — and is a favourite for stunt hounds, largely due to the number of frankfurters they earn. “Before shooting, the actor holds a few pieces of…