John Cleese Praises Ricky Gervais' Alley Cats as Critics Pan the Netflix Animation
Ricky Gervais' new Netflix animated series Alley Cats debuted over the weekend to sharply divided reviews — and a glowing endorsement from one of British comedy's most storied names.
John Cleese took to X, formerly Twitter, on 9 August to call the show "quite wonderful," adding: "Brilliant Really, really funny" with a thumbs-up emoji. He misspelled Gervais' surname as "Gervaise" in the post, but the sentiment was unmistakable. Gervais thanked Cleese in reply, calling him the creator of the greatest British sitcom of all time — a reference to Fawlty Towers (Deadline).
The praise landed against a bruising critical reception. Alley Cats holds a 39% score on Metacritic, the review-aggregation site that compiles critics' scores into a single percentage. The Telegraph awarded it a rare zero-star review. The Independent gave it one star. The New Statesman titled its critique "Alley Cats, Ricky Gervais's new comedy, is a mangy mess" (Deadline; New Statesman).
The show itself is an R-rated, politically incorrect dark comedy about a gang of feral, foul-mouthed British cats. Gervais created the series and voices its characters. Netflix describes it as a "no-holds-barred" animated comedy following feral cats causing chaos on the streets (Netflix Media Center). Gervais pitched it to Netflix Tudum as a sitcom about "swear-y cats," calling the show a love letter to the species.
Alley Cats marks Gervais' return to adult animation 13 years after The Ricky Gervais Show concluded on HBO and Channel 4. That earlier series adapted the popular podcast and audiobook series featuring Gervais, Karl Pilkington and Stephen Merchant into animated form. The new show's first footage debuted at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival — the world's largest animation festival, held annually in France — where it received a strong reception (Deadline).
Annecy warmth, though, has not translated into critical warmth on release. Gervais announced the premiere on his social media accounts across the week, posting an exclusive clip on Facebook on 6 August and telling followers the show was "full of foul-mouthed feral cats" (Ricky Gervais on Facebook). By 9 August, Alley Cats was trending on X amid reports that it had topped Netflix's internal charts, even as the critical divide played out in real time across the platform.
GB News reported on Cleese's endorsement on 10 August, framing it as a counterweight to the show's divided reception (GB News on X).
For Gervais, the split is familiar territory. His stand-up specials and previous series, including After Life and Derek, have drawn similar lines between enthusiastic audiences and lukewarm critics. Whether Alley Cats sustains its audience beyond the opening weekend — the viewership numbers Netflix will eventually disclose — is a separate question from the reviews. For now, a Fawlty Towers legend says it is brilliant, and several newspapers say it is not.
