After Life's Ricky Gervais Responds To Missing Season 3 Character

Ricky Gervais’ After Life has caused quite a stir since it landed on Netflix last week, but not for reasons anticipated.

If you’ve been enjoying After Life on the streaming platform, which has returned for its third and final season, you might have noticed that the cast looks quite different.

Gervais, who created, wrote and directed the black comedy, once again stars in the leading role as Tony Johnson alongside a lot of the old cohort. But there are two individuals who have vanished into thin air.

“I haven’t seen her for ages,” Tony says referencing Roxy (Roisin Conaty), a sex worker who dates the local postman Pat (Joe Wilkinson). “She doesn’t come round anymore. I assumed she was busy.”

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Mandeep Dhillon, who played Tambury Gazette newcomer Sandy, is also absent. She has been replaced by Kath Hughes as Coleen.

“​​We tried to make it work with Mandeep," Gervais told RadioTimes.com. "So did she, but she had a contract with this thing in America and it got closer and she just couldn't do it. Because of COVID, she had to go early. And that's fine. These things happen all the time. You can't get angry about it, so you rewrite it and I hope it still turns out great."

He added: "You let all the other things fill the gap. There's too much anyway. All the episodes come in at 45 minutes [initially]. I’ve always got to cut 15 minutes, so you’ve just got to roll with it, whether people can do it or not.

"And you lose crew too. This happens all the time. And the third season makes it twice as lightly some people have got another thing, or they don't want to do it, for whatever reason. But you've just got to go, 'OK, good luck.' And get on with it."

Read more on After Life:

• Ricky Gervais reveals why won’t there be an After Life season 4
• After Life season 3 soundtrack: Every song featured in Ricky Gervais sitcom

After Life season 3 is available to stream now on Netflix. Check out our lists of the best series on Netflix and the best movies on Netflix, or see what else is on with our TV Guide.