Picture Credit: Netflix
During a highly anticipated masterclass at the Annecy Animation Festival, Netflix provided a world-exclusive sneak peek at the first two episodes of the upcoming series. Described as an outrageously funny adult animated comedy, Alley Cats follows the trials and tribulations of feral British felines trying to survive in an uncaring human world.
During the “masterclass”, Gervais peeled back the curtain on the show’s unique production process, its grounded animation style, and how it serves as a natural evolution of his entire career, in addition to serving up multiple clips and two full episodes of the show, plus the crowd even sang Happy Birthday to the comic.
While we’re strictly embargoed on reviewing the series (which lifts on the day of release), I will say that the episodes lit up the room with laughter, which is a strong sign, given that the audience was from all around the world and as we’ve seen from the Netflix top 10s, comedies tend to struggle to break out of their home country more often than not. The natural banter between the characters is undoubtedly what this series lives and dies on, but it is also showing so far that it’s got plenty of heart, which underpins many of Gervais’ best works.
Ricky Gervais at Annecy International Film Festival – Picture: Kasey Moore / What’s on Netflix
Here is a comprehensive breakdown of everything revealed about Alley Cats.
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How Alley Cats fits into Gervais’ body of work
While Alley Cats is Gervais’s first time building an animated sitcom from the ground up (he’s voiced in many feature films and had his podcast turned into animation – streaming on Netflix US, by the way!), he views it as a natural progression of his creative DNA. During the panel, Gervais reflected on how every one of his past projects has served as a specific thematic “study” of the world around him.
“I worked in an office for 10 years and I did a study of it,” he told the Annecy crowd, referencing his groundbreaking debut series, The Office. He carried this observational approach into his follow-up, Extras: “I worked in media for 4 or 5 years, so I sort of did a study of that.” Derek, he explained, was heavily inspired by his own family. “It was a study of lots of my family who were care workers. That was a sort of study of kindness.”
As for his massive Netflix hit After Life? Gervais clarified a common misconception: “I think people thought it was a study of grief, but that was never the intention. It was a man grieving, but it wasn’t really about that, it was a love story.”
With Alley Cats, Gervais is channeling a lifelong love of animals—and a desire to avoid the makeup chair. “I don’t have to do hair and make-up or get up early. The cats aren’t going to age as I just get older and fatter,” he joked. This love of cats in particular should be no surprise if you’ve ever listened to Ricky at length or visited his social feeds. “I thought, they’re just sort of perfect creatures. They’re so independent. They’re so tiny and they think they’re lions. I just love their attitude.”
Evolving the Writing and Casting Process
This progression in his career has also drastically changed how he builds a show. Reflecting on his early days, Gervais noted the challenges of traditional casting: “The first thing I ever did was The Office. And you cast and cast, and you don’t know who’s going to walk through the door. But you’ve already written it. The second series of something, you know who you’re writing for.”
By the time he reached After Life and now Alley Cats, he had established a cast of regulars who would frequent across all of his projects. “I cast before I wrote it. I cast all the people. So I knew who I was writing for, which really helps.”
This allowed him to throw out the animation voice-acting rulebook. Instead of isolating actors in sound booths, the entire cast recorded their episodes together in one room. Gervais laid down a strict rule: “Don’t put on voices. Don’t do cartoon voices. Don’t talk funny. Just be yourself. I want it to be naturalistic.” The team would start with a 15-page script, run through the scenes, and then freely improvise, talking and laughing over one another to capture authentic banter.
Alley Cats. (L to R) Ricky Gervais as Gus, Kerry Godliman as Lara, in Alley Cats. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
Grounded Animation & Subtle Acting
Because the audio was completely finished before the animation even began, the animators (led by Gervais’ right-hand man Elliot and designer Tang) built the world around the cast’s naturalistic performances.
Gervais was adamant that the world of Alley Cats feel completely real, with the sole exception being that the cats can talk. “If a motorbike goes past, it doesn’t go [makes cartoon noise], it’s a motorbike… Everything’s realistic apart from the cats’ talk,” he said. “They can’t drive a spaceship, they can’t go back in time.”
This realistic approach extended to the characters’ facial expressions with Gervais pushing for subtle, nuanced acting over broad cartoon reactions. “I think that with acting, when you see people think acting is shouting and doing… I think good acting is when you have to do nothing,” he explained. “Less is more… don’t oversell the joke. They don’t need to look… families don’t look at each other when they’re talking.”
Alley Cats. (L to R) Ricky Gervias as Gus, Tom Basden as Ponce, David Earl as Puke, Andrew Brooke as Fang, Diane Morgan as Olive, in Alley Cats. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
Universal Themes
Despite the crude humor (with the F word, C word, and, in fact, any naughty word you can think of used very liberally), Alley Cats is deeply rooted in pathos. “I do like sort of pathos and I think with any fiction what you do is you create your own heroes and villains as role play for the soul,” Gervais shared. Because the feral cats live precarious lives at the bottom of the societal pile, the stakes feel incredibly high. “The jeopardy here is they can get run over or die in a hovel… I want people to care about these cats.”
While Alley Cats is distinctly British, Gervais knows from experience that his themes of survival, romance, and existential dread translate globally. Looking back at The Office, he recalled how people initially thought the show was uniquely English, yet it spawned 11 international remakes.
“The themes are universal,” Gervais explained. “A job of work, being thrown together, boy meets girl, all the ego, fame—all those things that are still universal.” He even joked about localizing humor across cultures, noting how a classic UK Office prank translated overseas. “We did a thing where we put a stapler in jelly. I believe in the French version, it was a cheese—so it translates!”
Ultimately, Gervais views his feral felines as the perfect vessel to explore our own human flaws. “Whatever it looked like, I’ve always written about humanity… drama hides a hero’s flaws, comedy exaggerates them and it says we’re all idiots so don’t worry about it.”
Bringing the Cats to Life: Praising the Production Team
While Gervais is a seasoned creator, he didn’t have much of a hand in actually bringing the audio to life beyond a sketch of his cat Gus drawn many years ago. “I can’t literally… I can’t hold the cameras myself. They just have to know what I want,” he explained. He heaped praise on the visual team, specifically highlighting his “right-hand man” Elliot Dear and designer Tang Kheng Heng for creating the show’s beautiful backgrounds and perfectly capturing his original sketches.
Translating his vision, however, led to some hilarious behind-the-scenes moments. To get the specific physical comedy he wanted, Gervais often resorted to acting out the feline movements himself. “There’s bits [videos] of me crawling around the floor,” he confessed, joking that producer Steve had video evidence of it on his phone. He also playfully acknowledged the painstaking work of the animation crew, quipping that his hyper-specific directions—like asking for a tiny adjustment to a cat’s tail or eyebrow—probably drove a “sweatshop of 60 people” crazy.
Gervais made sure to share the love with the broader production team in attendance at Annecy. He gave a special shout-out to the show’s producer, who was in the audience, noting that this was their first time working together and they really had to get to know one another for the project. He also highlighted the monumental task of his editor, Rachel Brennan, who was handed hours of overlapping, improvised audio and told to work her magic or as Gervais phrased it, “A big shout out to the editor Rachel, who I just recorded a big bag of shit [for] and said, ‘Right, get 15 minutes out of that!'”
Alley Cats. Ricky Gervais as Gus Alley Cats. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
Will Alley Cats get a season 2?
Based on Ricky’s comments, it’s not expected that the streamer has given the show a big upfront order for the show like it does with many of its adult animated sitcoms, meaning we’ll likely have to see how viewership does about whether it gets a season 2.
It sounds like Gervais isn’t planning to end the feral fun anytime soon: he made it very clear he is already eager for a Season 2!
On a related note, he had nothing but high praise for the streamer, noting their completely hands-off approach to his creative vision. “I should just say how great Netflix has been… they commissioned this on I saw the line ‘it’s cats, and they swear’, [Netflix asks] ‘what happens?’ [Gervais] Nothing.'” Greenlight!
Are you excited to check out Ricky Gervais’ Alley Cats when it hits Netflix this August? Let us know in the comments down below!
