Alley Cats is Ricky Gervais‘ return to the small screen, in which he appears alongside a group of his friends in animated feline form.
Just so you know which page I’m on, it’s been a long time since the last time Gervais was funny: namely, Extras, which came after The Office. Yes, I heard a lot of good things about Afterlife as a drama with some comedy, but I missed that one starting, and when I see clips of it, it just doesn’t grab me.
In this, Gervais, Tom Basden, Diane Morgan – who hasn’t been funny in a long time, especially as shown in Ann Droid, et al get together, making a handful of not very amusing lines – such as discussing eating poo – and the ‘plot’ moves on.
In fact, if you want a plot, the group come across a cute kitten (Jo Hartley – Adolescence) who’s wandered away from home. Will they get it back to its rightful abode by the end of the series? Well, it’s just 90 minutes, pointlessly split into 6 episodes when it could’ve been done as one.
Yes, that’s the entire plot.
For the rest, it’s more like they’ve all just sat in front of microphones, rambled away with a lot of swearing, and someone put animation to it. It’s hardly Derek and Clive(!)
However, there are one or two poignant moments that were worth watching as they emerged. So, it’s a bit like the awful David Brent: Life On The Road film, sitting through all of that, only to remember how the snow machine moment came about towards the end.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
Alley Cats is on Netflix from today.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 15 minutes per episode (6 episodes)
Release date: August 7th 2026
Studio: Netflix
Format: 2.00:1
Directors: Elliot Dear, Ricky Gervais
Writer: Ricky Gervais
Producer: Hugo Donkin
Music: Andy Burrows
Voice cast:
Gus: Ricky Gervais
Olive: Diane Morgan
Ponce: Tom Basden
Puke: David Earl
Fang: Andrew Brooke
Kitten: Jo Hartley
Plus, in roles not listed in the credits, and for whom I’ve forgotten: Kerry Godliman, Tony Way, Natalie Cassidy
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.