BBC - Extras (Christmas Special)

I missed this last night so I was grateful at the availability of it on BBCs iPlayer service which allowed me to watch it this afternoon.

Now, as a lover of ALL of Ricky Gervais' (& Stephen Merchant's) work, I was always going to enjoy this. I expected it to pursue a similar format to The Office series - and so it came to pass. The episode wasn't littered with jokes but instead used an age old Gervais technique of making policitical, social, religious or racial points with 'celebrities' paddling tentatively in pseudo-ironic waters. The 'humour' [not jokes! see above*] was plentiful and sat comfortably with the story's progression. This alone, would've provided 82 minutes satisfactory entertainment.

However, the shining light came from Ricky's (as Andy Millman) quite remarkable performance at the end when the realisation of fame as a self-fulfilling, egotistic bubble detached from reality and true friends manifested itself in a very accomplished and [for me] very moving performance. It turned a satisfactory piece into a masterpiece.

Fantastic stuff.