For today’s Now You Know, we’ll be looking at the British black comedy series After Life, which has been written and directed by Ricky Gervais. The show, streaming on Netflix, sees the comedian play Tony, a journalist trying to grapple with the death of his wife Lisa from cancer. 

1. Did you know that James Corden served as an inspiration for one of the characters on the show? Indeed, James the Recorder Kid is based on Corden, who has been a subject of many of Gervais’s jokes earlier. 

2. Since Ricky Gervais himself is an animal rights defender, the fish fingers that were featured on the show were of the vegan variant. 

3. The premiere episode features a disgruntled Tony deciding to offer his dog a can of baked beans after running out of dog food. He himself opts for vegetable curry in a can. In a later Facebook interaction, Gervais revealed that he had indeed consumed the vegetable curry during the filming of the scene.

4. The character of Lisa on the show has a middle name, Jane, which also happens to be the name of Gervais’ partner of 30 years, Jane Fallon. 

5. Ricky Gervais’ views on fatherhood are somewhat captured in the character of Tony. The actor-comedian has earlier admitted to being comfortable with not fathering a child. Similarly, Tony, in the series, reveals he isn’t keen on having a kid because he feels they are annoying. 

6. The music of After Life was handpicked by Gervais himself, a creative decision that he hadn’t had before. So when you hear Bill Withers’ Lovely Day or Elton John’s Rocketman, be assured that Gervais has himself selected these tracks to feature on the show. 

If you haven't watched this series yet, then do so it's streaming on Netflix

That's the OTTplay Now You Know, I shall be back again with another episode soon. Until then it's your host Nikhil signing out.