Cemetery Junction

Cemetery Junction Film

Dir: Ricky Gervais and
Stephen Merchant
lhr 35mins (15)
Misfiring comedy set in
1970s Reading

Written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen
Merchant, Cemetery Junction is a comedy-drama
about a group of young men who grow increasingly
frustrated by the limitations of life in Reading in the
1970s. It seems "almost inconceivable that this
ploddingly generic period drama" was written by
the men who gave us The Office and Extras, said
Kevin Mahcr in The Times. Cemetery Junction is a
"dismally unfunny" film that showcases Gervais's
unattractive tendency to rely on "bullying spite" to
get laughs. After the dismal The Invention of Lying,
he must have been desperate for a hit, but this isn't


going to be it, said Jason Solomons in the Mail on Sunday. Gervais and Merchant seem more
interested in re-creating an authentic 1970s setting than they are in character development or
narrative consistency. The storytelling is certainly "choppy and episodic", said Geoffrey Macnab
in The Independent, but there are still things to enjoy. Newcomers Tom Hughes and Christian
Cooke, for example, are both terrific, and there's a smattering of decent Dick Emery-style gags.