This week sees the première of Life’s Too Short, the latest sitcom from the minds of Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant, and whilst media focus is on the big name Hollywood A-List guest stars, there are a couple of familiar faces to fans of The Velvet Onion too.

The show is a fictional mockumentary about the over-exaggerated life of Warwick Davis – the world famous cult actor with dwarfism, best known for his roles in the Harry Potter and Star Wars sagas, as well as the titular roles in Willow and the Leprechaun movies.   Davis plays a bitter, twisted version of himself, desperate to restart his floundering Hollywood career, and Gervais & Merchant pop up as themselves trying to get rid of him.

Gervais described the show as “another naturalist observational comedy, dealing with everyday problems, human foibles and social faux pas … but with a dwarf” – and as with their previous show Extras, a huge number of big name guest stars have lined up to appear in the show, including Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Sandra Bullock, Steve Carell, Liam Neeson, Sylvester McCoy, Sting, and, as ever, Shaun Williamson {aka “Barry” from Eastenders!}.

Also in the cast is a semi-regular collaborator of Gervais & Merchant: Garth Marenghi himself, Matthew Holness, who plays Ian Wald – the lawyer in Warwick’s divorce case, whilst Steve Brody, who starred in Angelo‘s and Lifespam, plays Eric – the worst accountant in the world.

The links to TVO continue further into the show, with Tony Way and Colin Hoult lined up to make cameo appearances too.

A making of programme aired this weekend on BBC2, and can be viewed on iPlayer until Saturday, though if you’re planning on going in un-spoiled, it might be worth waiting for it to inevitably appear on the dvd extras.  Though watching it will let you catch a quick glimpse of Colin Hoult in a way you’ve never seen before…

Life’s Too Short airs Thursday, November 10th at 9:30pm on BBC2 in the UK, and early next year on HBO in America.