Ricky Gervais’s new TV project has been revealed: an adult animated series about a bunch of feral cats.
Alley Cats, a six-part show for Netflix, is described as a ‘slacker sitcom’ following a group of feral British cats who seek companionship while ruminating on everyday life. The slogan for the show, which will air next year, is: 'Nine lives, zero fucks.'
‘I play a fat, lazy, rude, opinionated creature with fangs, who’s not as smart or brave as he thinks he is. So quite a stretch,’ the comedian said.
He wrote and directed the show, and is working with several of his previous on-screen collaborators including Tom Basden, Andrew Brooke, David Earl, Kerry Godliman, Jo Hartley, Tony Way and Diane Morgan.
It also features Natalie Cassidy, the EastEnders favourite who once called Gervais ‘God’ when she told one interviewer: ‘I love everything he does. I think he's amazing.’
Animal-lover Gervais first teased the project in July last year by posting an image of the cast on social media, but without revealing what they were working on beyond it being an animation.
At the time the comedian said he wanted to make an animated series because ‘filming is a hard slog’ – only to find that animation was no less demanding.
He said: ‘It’s gonna take a long time cos it’s animation. It won’t be finished until next year. I don’t think there’s anything like it. I did animation cos I thought, "I’m getting old now" and filming is a hard slog. I thought, "Animation, that’s easy." It’s not. I’ve been a fool.’
The Office co-creator previously found success animating the podcast he, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington made together. He has lent his voice to other animated series including this year’s Dog Man, in which he played Flippy the Fish, 2022’s Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank and 2020’s The Willoughbys.
At one stage there were plans to create an animated series based on his children’s book Flanimals but nothing ever materialised.
Alley Cats marks Gervais’ return to TV as a creator for the first time since After Life, which ran for three seasons on Netflix from 2019 to 2022.
It is being co-directed by animation expert Elliot Dear, with the animation being created by Blink Industries.
