Ricky Gervais ignores dire one-star reviews and celebrates his cartoon Alley Cats reaching number one spot on Netflix

Ricky Gervais has ignored dire one-star reviews as he celebrated his cartoon Alley Cats reaching number one spot on Netflix.

The After Life creator, 65, returned to the box with the animated sitcom Ricky Gervais: Alley Cats, which centers around a rag-tag bunch of London street cats.

Since its release on Friday, the animation has debuted to overwhelmingly negative reviews from major critics. 

However, Ricky took to Instagram on Sunday to share his joy at the series reaching Netflix's top spot, meaning it has the highest number of views over the last 24 hours.

Sharing a screenshot of the spot on Instagram, he wrote: 'Oh. My. God.

'I've never been so happy. Best fans in the f***ing world.'

The short-form series follows five rough-and-tumble strays and their dapper domestic mate who face the challenges of the modern-day world on the streets of London.

Speaking about the series ahead of its release, Ricky said: 'I made [the characters] obviously unwanted to add to the pathos and the jeopardy.

'I wanted them to be bottom-of-the-pile, so you're rooting for them straight away.

'It's almost like a typical British sitcom class conflict. They're uneducated, they're hungry, they've got to be tough, they're streetwise, but their regular member of the gang is a middle-class pet who's educated.

'That's what starts all the conflict and all the bickering.'

However, major critics largely lambasted the series as an exhausting, unfunny mix of excessive profanity and unearned, manipulative sentimentality.

The Daily Mail's Deborah Ross gave it a one star review, saying that 'something has gone very wrong with Ricky Gervais'.

She writes: 'There is no coherent storyline although there is a lost little kitten who hangs out with the gang on the promise they'll get her home.

'This, ultimately, not only slips into sentimentality but also goes full cliché. It's the 'a-family-is-whom-you-choose-them-to-be' one.'

Tom Percival of Metro also gave a one star review, writing: 'I was shocked that a man I used to think was a comedy genius, a man who worked on two of the best comedies of all time and produced arguably the greatest comedy character of the 2000s, David Brent, could produce such lazy claptrap.'

Independent's Louis Chilton says: 'For the past two decades, the increasingly futile question hanging over Gervais's career has been whether he will ever make something as brilliant as The Office again. Alley Cats makes me wonder if he even has it in him to make another Life's Too Short.'

Matt Maytum of NME gave the series a one star, stating that it's 'a cross between a sitcom and a Pixar movie. But with swearing.'

Radio Times' Jack Seale writes: 'The mix of raucous crudeness and simplistic sentimentality – one thing the two elements share is that they’re both aggressively, insistently philistine – has become the signature Gervais style, but that doesn’t make Alley Cats any more appetising.

'In 2D, his writing falls flatter than ever.'

The iPaper's Emily Baker said: 'Protected by the ridiculousness of a cartoon cat, Gervais could have changed the narrative on his “old man yells at cloud” act – instead, Alley Cats is the same old provocative rubbish that arrives not with a roar, but a meow.'

Alley Cats is available to stream on Netflix.