Keep walking, keep walking

Despite reaching what appeared to be a fitting conclusion when its second series ended last year, Extras is coming back for its real swansong in the form of a bumper-length Christmas special.

What's Good About It

• The special boasts an impressive range of celebrities, from Clive Owen, David Tennant, George Michael and Gordon Ramsay to Dean Gaffney, Hale & Pace, Chico and Lionel Blair. And incredibly, everyone is on top form (take note, Orlando Bloom!). The nation's favourite toe-tapper gets to crack some of the best lines of the show.



• The Catherine Tate Show - also returning for a Christmas special - is the object of digs-a-plenty. Hurrah!



• Ashley Jensen excels as the downtrodden antithesis to Ricky Gervais' increasingly self-consumed and fame-seeking Andy Milman.



• Pitted against series two's last episode as a "rival" finale, the Christmas special comes out on top.



• Bunny steals the show in a short but sweet scene set on "the waiting bench".

What's Not So Good About It

• The final episode is a bum-numbing 90 minutes, and it starts to drag towards the end. An hour would have done the job just as nicely.



• I believe we are supposed to feel sorry for Andy's agent Darren Lamb (Stephen Merchant) when he finally gets the sack for being helplessly incompetent. I would have screamed with joy, were I the expressive type.



• One of Gervais' strongest comedy tricks - making humour out of uncomfortable situations - is tested in this episode. A joke about the ethnic composition of Maggie's new hometown is ill-judged, lacking any laughs and instead feels like something Bernard Manning would have written.



• Approaching the denouement, an enlightened Millman delivers an overly-long monologue about the nature of celebrity (Think Jimmy Corkhill in the last ever Brookside). Given the show's premise, one has to wonder to what extent the morals must apply to Gervais himself.

The Extras Christmas special airs on Thursday, December 27 at 9pm on BBC One.

What do you think of Extras coming back? Should it have ended after two series? Maybe you'd like even more? Can Gervais ever live up to the quality of The Office? Let me know your thoughts by clicking below to add comments.

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