--- title: "Life's Too Short" year: 2011 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/lifes-too-short" fi1m_id: "lifes-too-short" imdb_id: "tt1641247" tmdb_id: 38294 wikidata_id: "Q23823" fi1m_score: 63 critics_score: 66 critics_reviews: 6 published: "2026-10-02T22:38:55.053811+00:00" updated: "2026-10-02T22:38:56.064727+00:00" region: "PE" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Life's Too Short (2011) Created by Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Warwick Davis · 30m · Comedy ## Identity Life's Too Short - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/lifes-too-short - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** lifes-too-short - **IMDb ID:** tt1641247 - **TMDB ID:** 38294 - **Wikidata ID:** Q23823 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1641247/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/38294, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23823 **Fi1m score: 63** · Critics 66 from 6 reviews *In a sentence:* Warwick Davis has the comic timing of a lifetime and a script that keeps putting him in a bin > Gervais and Merchant’s third mockumentary has one superb comic performance at its centre and its furniture borrowed from *Extras*. Warwick Davis is worth the seven half-hours; whether the jokes about his height are ever more than jokes about his height is harder to say. ## Synopsis Warwick Davis (Warwick Davis) now runs a talent agency from a cramped office and has let a documentary crew follow him. His wife Sue (Jo Enright) is divorcing him, his accountant (Steve Brody) has landed him with a large tax bill, and his assistant Cheryl (Rosamund Hanson) cannot take a message. His plan is to get back on screen, which means turning up uninvited at the office of Ricky Gervais (Ricky Gervais) and Stephen Merchant (Stephen Merchant) to ask for parts they do not have. In the first episode Liam Neeson (Liam Neeson) arrives wanting to try improvised comedy and Warwick falls out of his car. Shaun Williamson (Shaun Williamson) hangs about the office hoping for work. ## Review Having made *The Office* and [*Extras*](https://film.one/tv/extras), Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant go back to the mockumentary a third time, and this time they have brought Warwick Davis to play a version of himself who is vain, tight with money and sure he is still a star. Seven episodes of half an hour each, first shown on 10 November 2011, follow him through a divorce, a tax bill and a daily walk to the office of Gervais and Merchant, where he asks for work and does not get it. It is often funny and Davis is tremendous in it. It is also a show that keeps telling us the joke is his character while it films his height, and we never quite believed it. Davis is the reason to watch. He plays Warwick as David Brent reduced to scale: the same confiding glances at the camera, the same habit of announcing a principle and breaking it in the next shot, the same certainty that the room is laughing with him. He lies to his wife Sue (Jo Enright) about his earnings while the divorce is being settled, and Enright plays Sue with a tired patience that is funnier than any line she is given. Steve Brody’s accountant knows less about tax than Warwick does, and Davis carries their scene almost entirely by listening, his face going from confidence to arithmetic to dread. The famous faces are the best thing in it after him. Liam Neeson turns up in the first episode wanting to try improvised comedy and steers every suggestion towards terminal illness, with the gravity of a man reading a eulogy. We laughed at that scene until it hurt, and the reason is Neeson’s face: he never lets on that he knows it is a comedy, and Davis, Gervais and Merchant have the sense to sit still and let him. Johnny Depp arrives with a grudge against Gervais and takes his time over it. Helena Bonham Carter, shooting a period drama, has Warwick placed in a bin so he will not spoil her eyeline. Steve Carell gets a short scene that mostly consists of being polite. Then there is the other kind of joke. Warwick falls out of his car because his feet do not reach the ground. He is picked up and moved, more than once, like luggage. He goes in the bin. The writing insists we are laughing at a small-minded man rather than a small one, and on the page that is mostly true. The camera does not keep to the bargain. It finds the height every time, and around the third fall we stopped laughing and felt slightly ashamed of having started. Not because the gags are cruel; Davis co-created the show and plainly enjoys them. Because they are easy, and Gervais and Merchant used to be better than easy. They play themselves as the only sane men in the building, which was funnier when Merchant was a useless agent in *Extras* and had something to lose. Here they sit behind a large desk and raise their eyebrows, and the smugness is not always the character’s. The shape is *Extras* with the agent moved to the centre: one famous guest per episode, a hopeless office, a woman at the next desk who is no help. That woman is Cheryl, and Rosamund Hanson plays her with a blank, slow kindness that is the show’s one piece of warmth; she cannot take a message and she would do anything for him. Shaun Williamson, as himself, hangs about hoping someone will give him a job. Anna Higginson’s design puts the agency in a brown, cramped room with a desk built for somebody else, and it says more about Warwick’s standing than any scene written to make the point. *The Office* worked because David Brent built his own humiliations and we watched him do it. Warwick does some of that here, with the money and the lies to Sue, and those are the stretches where the show is honest about something. The rest of the time the humiliations are built for him by the writers and he only has to fall into them. The reviews split sharply on whether that balance holds. Watch the first two episodes for Neeson and for Davis talking to camera about his place in cinema. If you are still laughing when he goes into the bin, the other five will suit you; if not, you have seen the best of it. *Fi1m score 63, published 2 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Life's Too Short worth watching?** *Life's Too Short* is worth watching for Warwick Davis, who gives the comic performance of a lifetime as a vain, tight-fisted version of himself, and we scored it 63. The guest scenes with Liam Neeson and Johnny Depp are the funniest things in it. Watch the first two episodes; if the height gags still amuse you by then, the other five will suit you. **How long is Life's Too Short, and what is it rated?** *Life's Too Short* has episodes of about 30m. It is a comedy series. **Where can I watch Life's Too Short in Peru?** *Life's Too Short* is not on any streaming or rental service in Peru at the moment. It is available in 3 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is Life's Too Short, and is it suitable for children?** *Life's Too Short* has no UK certificate and carries a TV-MA rating in America, which places it firmly with adults. There is no violence or horror; the concern is language and the humour, which involves Warwick being dropped, moved about like luggage and put in a bin. Children and the easily embarrassed are not who it was made for. **How does Life's Too Short compare to Extras?** *Life's Too Short* uses the shape of [*Extras*](https://film.one/tv/extras), with a hopeless agent moved to the centre and one famous guest per episode, and the earlier series is the better of the two. *Extras* gave its people something to lose; here Gervais and Merchant sit behind a desk and raise their eyebrows. Anyone who loved *Extras* will enjoy Davis and the celebrity turns, but should expect easier jokes. **What should I watch after Life's Too Short?** After *Life's Too Short*, try [*Extras*](https://film.one/tv/extras) (2005, Fi1m 81): The template for this one, with Merchant as the agent and Kate Winslet as herself. Then [*The Larry Sanders Show*](https://film.one/tv/the-larry-sanders-show) (1992, Fi1m 91): Celebrities playing themselves badly behaved, done with more patience and less bruising; and [*Call My Agent!*](https://film.one/tv/call-my-agent) (2015, Fi1m 82): A Paris talent agency, a famous French face each week, and warmer about everyone. ### Reviews we read (6) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Tim Goodman (85/100, inferred): The critic calls the series another strong comedy from Gervais and Merchant. He especially praises Warwick Davis’s impeccable timing and resilience amid the show’s embarrassing situations. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/lifes-short-290226/) - **The Guardian**, Euan Ferguson (82/100, inferred): Ferguson gives the series a strongly positive verdict, suggesting it could be a major success. He especially praises Warwick Davis’s comic performance and the painful contradictions he brings to the character. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/nov/13/jury-rev-lifes-short-review) - **The AV Club**, Josh Modell (B-): Modell finds the finale a pleasant, unexpectedly muted coda, and argues the series deserves a better reputation than it received. He especially praises Rosamund Hanson’s performance as Cheryl, while finding the faded-TV-stars storyline flat. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/life-s-too-short-special-1798177288) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (30/100, inferred): Lowry finds the finale and series disappointing, lacking the payoff and inspiration of Gervais and Merchant’s earlier work. He gives some credit to the amusing Val Kilmer Batman gag, but says the show mostly retreads Extras without matching its entertainment value. [Read](https://variety.com/2013/tv/columns/lifes-too-short-finale-review-ricky-gervais-stumbles-1200503596/) - **Collider**, Ethan Anderton (90/100, inferred): Anderton gives the series an enthusiastic verdict, calling it hilarious and praising its emotional honesty. He singles out the guest stars and supporting cast as especially funny. [Read](https://collider.com/lifes-too-short-review/) - **Paste**, Garrett Martin (4.0/10): Martin finds the episodes mean-spirited and insufficiently funny, making their cringe comedy feel cruel rather than challenging. He singles out the scenes humiliating Warwick Davis as especially uncomfortable, despite some funny moments in the celebrity cameos. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/article/lifes-too-short-review-episodes-102-and-103) ## Details - **Created by:** Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Warwick Davis - **Creator:** Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Warwick Davis - **Director:** Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant - **Writer:** Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant - **Production design:** Anna Higginson - **Producer:** Charlie Hanson - **Cast:** Warwick Davis as Warwick Davis; Ricky Gervais as Ricky Gervais; Stephen Merchant as Stephen Merchant; Jo Enright as Sue; Steve Brody as Accountant; Shaun Williamson as Shaun Williamson; Rosamund Hanson as Cheryl; Liam Neeson as Liam Neeson - **Runtime:** 30m - **Release (Peru):** 10 November 2011 - **Genres:** Comedy - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=136-RUjvkLU ## Where to watch in Peru Not streaming, renting or buying in Peru at the last check. Also available in: CA, DE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Extras* (2005), Fi1m 81: The template for this one, with Merchant as the agent and Kate Winslet as herself. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/extras.md) - *The Larry Sanders Show* (1992), Fi1m 91: Celebrities playing themselves badly behaved, done with more patience and less bruising. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-larry-sanders-show.md) - *The Comeback* (2005): Lisa Kudrow’s faded sitcom star, filmed for a reality show, humiliated by her own hopes. - *Call My Agent!* (2015), Fi1m 82: A Paris talent agency, a famous French face each week, and warmer about everyone. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/call-my-agent.md) - *Toast of London* (2012): Matt Berry’s vain actor between jobs, if you want the ego without the cringe. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/lifes-too-short