Ricky Gervais generally has reliable comic timing. He helped usher in a renaissance of documentary-style cringe comedy as a creator and star ofThe Office.And he has successfully positioned himself against the well-heeled Hollywood crowd that occasionally invites Gervais to mock them to their faces as host of the Golden Globes. (In his routine in January, Gervais roasted his celebrity peers for their displays of social consciousness while they worked for corporations like Amazon, Apple a company that runs sweatshops in China and Disney. If Isisstarted a streaming service, youd call your agent, wouldnt you? he said.)

But will the current cultural moment be as receptive to season two of Gervaiss dark comedy series After Life, whichNetflix released last Friday?

On this show, which Gervaiswrites and directs, he plays the lead role of Tony Johnson, a widower still mourning his wife, Lisa (Kerry Godliman), who died of breast cancer. In his grief, Tony resolves to become the person hes always wanted to be self-assertive, impolitic and largely resistant to the efforts of friends who hope to steer him onto more positive paths.

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After Lifeis suffused with an existentialism that could make it either an ideal tonic right now or too uncomfortably real and Gervais knows that its tone is tricky even under normal circumstances. As he said in a recent video chat from his home in north London: The big worry for me was, could people go from laughing about something ridiculous to crying about something very real? I think the answer is yes.

How is your quarantine going?

Were in one of the better places called the Vale of Health. I think thats a good omen. Were on lockdown, but youre allowed to exercise every day. Ive turned into that guy when I see people having picnics and stuff like that, I want to call the police: Theres some neer-do-wells having fun and games!

Gervais created and starred in the hugely successful The Office (Alamy)

Are things really all that different for you?

Apart from the gigs that were postponed, my life hasnt changed much. I didnt go out a lot, and theres always enough booze in the house for a nuclear winter. You wont hear me complain. Not when, every day, I see some millionaire celebrity going, Im sad that Im not on telly tonight. Or, I had a swim in the pool, that made me feel a little bit better. [Begins to sing] Imagine theres no heaven

Your comedy is often critical of fame and the people who covet it. Do you think that the pandemic has accelerated our distaste for celebrity culture?

Ive got nothing against anyone being a celebrity or being famous. I think that people are just a bit tired of being lectured to. Now celebrities think: The general public needs to see my face. They cant get to the cinema I need to do something. And its when you look into their eyes, you know that, even if theyre doing something good, theyre sort of thinking, I could weep at what a good person I am. Oh dear.

But when you perform a stand-up routine like the one you did at this years Golden Globes, dont you have to look over your shoulder when the night is over?

No, the world hasnt changed. No one looks at me differently. And Ive got nothing against those people, really. I think thats the mistake people make: they think that every joke is a window to the comedians soul because I wrote it and performed it under my own name, that thats really me. And thats just not true. Ill flip a joke halfway through and change my stance to make the joke better. Ill pretend to be right wing, left wing, whatever wing, no wing. Ive got to go after the richest people in the room, and NBC and the Hollywood Foreign Press [Association, which organises the Golden Globes]. Ive got to be a court jester, but a court jesters got to make sure that he doesnt get executed as well. Ive got to make all the peasants laugh at the king, but the kings sort of got to like it. [Laughs]

A lot of political conservatives became fans of yours after that performance because they felt youd finally stuck it to the Hollywood elite. Do you think any were driven away after they learned you didnt share their viewpoints on other issues?

I didnt notice that on Twitter until a couple of disgruntled liberal elites suddenly said, Oh, Gervais is alt-right now. And I went, what? Whats right-wing about taking the mickey out of the richest, most powerful corporations on the planet? But Ive had this before. People that followed me, if they were far right, theyre probably not atheists like me. They probably dont like some of the language that I use. They probably dont agree with my anti-trophy hunting stance. In general, I think most normal people follow a person for a particular reason or two. If the tweets I hate outnumber the ones I like, Ill unfollow him. No one has to be perfect to have friends. They just have to be, on balance, OK.

The dog, literally and metaphorically, saves Tonys life, over and over again (Natalie Seery/Netflix)

The themes of death and how we deal with loss are pervasive in After Life.Does that make it any more attuned to the current moment? Or does that make it harder to watch?

I think we second-guess people too much. We worry about what the people at home can take. Real lifes worse. They can take all of this. It stuns me that people still think, Oh, you shouldnt joke about that. Were reading about it in the paper why cant we joke about it? With other shows of mine, people come up to me on the street, and they usually say, I love the show.But with this one and this was before coronavirus they come up to me and say, I just want to say, I lost my sister three weeks ago. Or, I lost my husband. No one said, Oh, I had to turn it off because it was too upsetting, or, It reminded me of something bad. You suddenly realise, of course everyones grieving. And the older you get, the more youve got to grieve.

Theres a scene in one of the new episodes when Tony tells another character: Everythings bad for you. Were all dying. Being healthy is just dying more slowly.Do you think about moments like that one differently now?

I think it would be different if I did a show that was specifically about coronavirus[wearily] which there are going to be hundreds. And novels. And weird, fake reality shows. But in the abstract, its a joke about death, and people are dying all the time. People arent going, No one was dying until this year that joke didnt age well. Tonys acting nihilistically. Hes reminding people that hes not over it. He still wants to punish the world. Theres a narcissism to his grieving, in a way. And then he confronts people that are worse off than him and make him feel slightly spoiled. We all go through that.

What gets us out of our nihilism and gets us over attitudes like that?

One of the ideas in After Lifeis about how the mundane saves us. We need those little things. The fact that the dog, literally and metaphorically, saves Tonys life, over and over again. I say to the dog, If you could open a can, Id be dead now. Death is the last taboo. Its imminent. Its going to happen. We just dont want it to be now, whenever it is. But we can still joke about it. I dont know if that makes the show any more or less poignant or entertaining than any other time. But people do all the things theyre supposed to now.They stay in. They wash their hands. They phone their family. And then, I think, they want to watch Tiger King.You know? No ones thinking about coronavirus when theyre watching. And life goes on. Lifes got to go on. Life goes on.

'After Life' is available on Netflix

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Ricky Gervais interview: They think that every joke is a window to the comedians soul - The Independent