If there's one man who knows how to do a Christmas special, it's Ricky Gervais. And luckily, he's also very good at ending a series.
You only have to look at the final episodes of The Office and Extras to know that. And that's just as well because he's about to retire another one of his shows, Derek, which started in April 2012 with a pilot and ran for two series, the second of which ended earlier on this year in May.
Expectations were always going to be high for the Derek special because of Gervais' track record and luckily he met expectations and gave Derek the send off it deserved. The one-hour special is warm, funny and as always, honest and charming.
The episode opens up with Derek singing a song about the people in the home loving pudding... and take it from me, it will be in your head all day.
There was one special occasion which the Derek special had to cover... and that's Hannah and Tom's wedding, but don't worry, this isn't an entire episode of the build up to the wedding. That said, there's a brilliant best man's speech to loo out for. But don't worry, I won't ruin it for you and tell who exactly who delivers that speech but I will tell you that it's either Derek or Kev.
So whilst the special doesn't focus solely on the wedding, it does tie up any loose ends that may have been made in the series. For example, we find out what happened to the lady Derek went on a date with, we get to meet more of Kev's family, Hannah has her baby, Vicky continues to have success at Broad Hill and Derek's friendship with Kev is pushed further than before.
It worked for The Office, it worked for Extras so fair play to Ricky Gervais for sticking to his two series and a special formula for Derek, although of course waving goodbye to Derek Noakes isn't easy. It feels like he's only just burst onto our screens and I feel like there's so much more that could be done with the character, so for me, saying goodbye to Derek Noakes is proving just as difficult as when we had to say farewell to David Brent or Andy Millman.
if you've been a fan of Derek so far, then make sure you don't miss the special as once again Ricky Gervais blends crude humour with honesty and charm, to give Derek the send-off it deserves.
And finally, they always say to never meet your heroes, as you're bound to be disappointed. But earlier this year I did just that when I interviewed Ricky Gervais, and he could not have been nicer. So I want to say a massive congratulations to Ricky Gervais who was recently nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Actor In A Comedy category, an award he won back in 2004 for The Office.