Despite shaky ratings

It had a lukewarm critical reception at best and shed more than half its viewers over its six-part run, but Life’s Too Short is coming back for a second series.

Co-creator Ricky Gervais tweeted the news yesterday, saying the return was planned for spring 2013.

He took to the social network site amid reports he was to ‘join’ Channel 4 after the Warwick Davies series flopped. The overnight ratings for the show started at 2.5million, but dipped to a low of 1million.

However, the Channel 4 show, about a mentally confused care home resident called Derek Noakes, was in the pipeline before Life’s Too Short had debuted – and was always planned for Channel 4 for fear of Gervais being over-exposed on the BBC.

Gervais also confirmed plans for a special episode of Sky 1’s An Idiot Abroad called The Short Way Round, in which Davies joins Karl Pilkington on his international travels. Gervais’s vision was to have the 3ft 6in actor sitting in a basket on the front of Pilkington’s bike.

His tweet confirming the news said: ‘FAQ Second Series of Life's Too Short Planned for spring 2013 An Idiot Abroad Special: The Short Way Round planned for end of 2012.’

The BBC have been keen to play up the audience figures that second screenings and iPlayer viewings of Life’s Too Short have received, to boost the overall aggregate ratings for the show. Nonetheless, it will be seen as a disappointment that by the time the series finished this week, it attracted an average of 1.4million to its slot, which would normally expect to average 1.8million.

Published: 22 Dec 2011