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Ricky Gervais has a message of hope for Big Issue readers

After Life’s tale of grief has been become a big draw on Netflix as its second season airs during lockdown. But comic Gervais is keeping upbeat throughout the Covid-19 crisis

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This week’s Big Issue cover star Ricky Gervais may have made a career out of making people laugh – but it’s hope that he’s bringing to Big Issue readers this week.

The Office star’s message for everyone struggling at home is simple: “hope is everything”.

Gervais’ uplifting outlook chimes with the second season of his hit show After Life, which is now streaming on Netflix.

Beset by grief at the loss of his wife, Ricky’s character Tony developed a devil-may-care attitude to say what he wants, a sort of pseudo-superpower. In the second season of the show, he harnesses that power for good and to help people.

Despite the challenges people are facing at the moment, that attitude has been in evidence across the country, with plenty of people, groups and charities clubbing together to help others.

And Ricky is keeping the faith as we wait for the coronavirus pandemic to pass.

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“On a graph over time, with all the little peaks and troughs, society goes up and up and up. It’s better today than 50 years ago and 50 years ago was better than 100 years ago and 100 years ago was better than 1,000 years ago. For everything – attitudes, life expectancy, all these things,” he tells The Big Issue.

“We’ve got to realise that it is a pretty good time to exist. Good people working in science will save us and show us the way and we’ll get through this like we always have.”

To read more from Gervais as well as fellow comedians Romesh Ranganathan, Rob Beckett and Russell Howard and whole lot more, get your copy of this week’s Big Issue magazine now.

Subscribe to the magazine now to receive it directly to your door or device – head to bigissue.com/subscribe for details – or you can pick up one off issues in The Big Issue app, available now from the App Store or on Google Play.

You can also pick up a copy in the shops for the first time – head to Sainsbury’s, McColl’s, Co-op, Asda or WH Smith to get your magazine.

As ever, 50 per cent of the proceeds will go to Big Issue vendors as we work hard to support them through the Covid-19 crisis while they are temporarily unable to sell the magazine on the streets.

The second series of After Life is available on Netflix

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