Shropshire-born comedian Stewart Lee upsets Ricky Gervais fans after calling Netflix series After Life 'abysmal'

Speaking on Rob Brydon's podcast, Stewart Lee - who grew up in the West Midlands - took aim at Gervais' Netflix show, saying his comedy-drama work is of "diminishing returns" and is "abysmal."

He did, however, describe Ricky's earlier work The Office as "brilliant."

Lee, who was born in Wellington, told Brydon: "It must be very sad if you’re teaching drama or creative writing, how can you make a case for the things that make drama and creative writing good when After Life is a success?

"Because your kids could just go 'but none of those things happen in this’ and yet, millions people watch it.

"I think it’s one of the worst things that’s ever been made by a human," he added.

When Lee was asked about his work possibly being one of Ricky Gervais' influences, he jokingly replied: "I don't suppose Robert Oppenheimer felt great about having created the atomic bomb."

You can watch the full interview below to give it more context.

Ricky Gervais hasn't yet responded directly to the criticism, but he has liked and re-Tweeted a number of things on Twitter than possibly hint at response.

After Life tells the story of a man grieving following the death of his wife.

It ran for three series on Netflix, starting in 2019 and ending earlier this year.

The show has won a number of awards, and evidenced by the amount of people defending Gervais on social media, is generally very popular.

It's worth mentioning that some people do indeed appear to share Stewart Lee's view too though.