Kerry Godliman, Diane Morgan and more in Netflix series

Diane Morgan and Kerry Godliman are to star alongside Ricky Gervais in his Netflix comedy After Life, Chortle can reveal.

Tom Basden and Sean McLoughlin also have roles in the six-part series, in which writer-director Gervais plays a man who becomes suicidal after the death of his wife but decides to live long enough to punish the world by saying and doing whatever he likes.

Filming begins this month in London, with Basden telling Arthur Smith on Radio 4 Extra's Comedy Club that 'I'm playing Ricky's character's brother-in-law. It’s really interesting. It's quite dark.'

Godliman previously appeared alongside Gervais in his Channel 4 care home sitcom Derek, while Philomena Cunk star Morgan and Plebs creator Basden appeared in the 2016 David Brent movie: Life On The Road.

McLoughlin supported Gervais on his recent Humanity tour, and is a regular guest on The  Office creator’s Sirius XM podcast, where news of his involvement was revealed.

Gervais will executive produce After Life with Charlie Hanson, who previously worked with him on Derek and Extras. The first production meeting was held last week, as Gervais tweeted:

About to have our first production meeting for "After Life". pic.twitter.com/RIRu24y997

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) June 8, 2018

After Life continues his affiliation with Netflix, which distributed Life on the Road and Humanity as a special, as well as his film Special Correspondents. The streaming giant also has the rights to his next live show SuperNature.

The company is pushing for more UK productions and is opening a  London office in September, from which it will commission programmes. It is thought to be planning an in-house production hub, too.

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 13 Jun 2018