Late-night slot for Gervais shtick

Stephen Merchant , Warwick Davis and Ricky Gervais in 'Life's Too Short'.

Sweet-and-sour series has limited appeal, writes Nick Grant

Two years after it debuted in the UK, the third comedy series by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant finally gets a slot on TV One - late on Friday nights.

Why the lack of love from the schedulers for Life's Too Short, which like Gervais and Merchant's career-making hit The Office adopts a mockumentary format and, as with their follow-up Extras, boasts a bevy of cameos from high- profile actors playing amusingly unpleasant and/or idiotically oblivious versions of themselves?

Perhaps it's because the similarities to the earlier shows make it all too easy to dismiss Life's Too Short as a lazy retread of past successes, which is the line many British reviewers took when it debuted at the end of 2011? There is a strong sense of deja vu as far as the series' tone goes, which mines the same rich vein of droll discomfort as its predecessors.

Or perhaps it's because Life's Too Short digs even deeper into the cringe-inducing substratum of social faux pas in its search for comedy gold, resulting in material that's likely to be appreciated only by a niche audience of aficionados.

What ups the anxiety ante is that the central character, who the show invites the audience to view with a mixture of sympathy and derision, is Warrick Davis, a 106cm tall actor whose roles in such films as Return of the Jedi and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy have made him "the UK's go-to dwarf".

As played by Warrick Davis, whose idea the series was, Davis is quickly established as an overweening, self-aggrandising egotist who's apparently willing to endure any humiliation in his half-arsed efforts to restart his career and patch things up with his estranged wife. But although he seethes at the way he's often the victim of gross sizeism, that doesn't stop him from treating the other 'little people' in his talent agency, Dwarves for Hire, with belittling disdain.

It's doubtful Life's Too Short will win further fans for the work of Gervais and Merchant, but those who've acquired a taste for their sweet and sour shtick will find much to savour here.

Meanwhile, earlier in the week and at a much more agreeable hour is TV3's one-off documentary The Story: High School, which gives a glimpse of a year in the life of Auckland's Long Bay College through the eyes of principal Russell Brooke and a handful of its 1800 students and 110 teachers.

Despite its brevity (it's barely 50 minutes long, discounting ads), this elegantly constructed piece of work provides a portrait of the challenges faced by the school and its citizens that acknowledges complexity even as it crafts a concise narrative.

At the end of the programme there's a disclaimer from the college's board of trustees that notes "although there is no average or typical school, we hope we represent the care, dedication and expertise of all our schools". In this and all other respects High School earns a pass with distinction.

High School screens Monday, 7.30pm, on 3; Life's Too Short premieres Friday 11.05pm, on One.