Alley Cats: Release Date, Cast, Plot, and Everything to Know About the Ricky Gervais Show

Ricky Gervais is back on Netflix this week, but this time he’s only playing a voice role. Alley Cats is his latest animated series, and he wrote it, directed it, and voices the lead cat in it. The six-part adult comedy follows a gang of foul-mouthed street cats who share a room in a run-down house and argue about life, food, and death in between scraps.

Alley Cats (2026)	Details
Creator, Writer, Director	Ricky Gervais
Co-Director	Elliot Dear
Animation Studio	Blink Industries
Executive Producers	Ricky Gervais, Steven Hamilton Shaw, James Stevenson Bretton, Ben Lole
Episodes	6
Streaming On	Netflix
Release Date	August 7, 2026

British studio Blink Industries handled the animation, and the voice booth is packed with Ricky Gervais regulars like Diane Morgan, David Earl, and Tom Basden. The show lands on Netflix on August 7, 2026. Here is everything worth knowing before you press play.

Alley Cats Release Date: When Is the Animated Show Premiering?

Alley Cats premieres worldwide on Netflix on Friday, August 7, 2026. All six episodes arrive at once, and each one runs under 20 minutes, which means the full season is barely longer than a feature film. Netflix normally adds new titles at 12:00 a.m. Pacific Time, so the exact hour depends on where you are sitting. Here is roughly when the series should show up in a few major regions.

Time Zone	Release Time	Corrected Date
US Pacific (PDT)	12:00 AM	August 7, 2026
US Mountain (MDT)	1:00 AM	August 7, 2026
US Central (CDT)	2:00 AM	August 7, 2026
US Eastern (EDT)	3:00 AM	August 7, 2026
US Alaska (AKDT)	11:00 PM	August 6, 2026
US Hawaii (HST)	9:00 PM	August 6, 2026
United Kingdom (BST)	8:00 AM	August 7, 2026
Europe (CEST)	9:00 AM	August 7, 2026
Saudi Arabia (AST)	10:00 AM	August 7, 2026
UAE (GST)	11:00 AM	August 7, 2026
India (IST)	12:30 PM	August 7, 2026
Philippines (PHT)	3:00 PM	August 7, 2026
Singapore (SGT)	3:00 PM	August 7, 2026
Japan (JST)	4:00 PM	August 7, 2026
Australia (AEST)	5:00 PM	August 7, 2026

Audiences in France got an early look in June, when Gervais screened two episodes at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

Alley Cats Cast: Who Are Voicing the Characters in the Show?

Ricky Gervais plays Gus, the loud, self-appointed boss of the group. Everyone around him is someone he has worked with before, so the cast list reads like an After Life reunion in cat form. Here’s the full voice cast list.

Voice Actor	Character
Ricky Gervais (After Life, The Office)	Gus
Tom Basden (After Life, Plebs)	Ponce
Andrew Brooke (After Life, Children of Men)	Fang
David Earl (Brian and Charles, Derek)	Puke
Diane Morgan (Cunk on Earth, After Life)	Olive
Jo Hartley (After Life, This Is England)	Kitten
Kerry Godliman (After Life)	Lara

Natalie Cassidy and Tony Way round out the ensemble. The recording process was unusual too. Instead of putting each actor alone in a booth, Gervais sat the whole cast in one room and taped every episode together, running the script first and then letting everyone improvise, all before a single frame was animated (via British Comedy Guide).

Alley Cats Plot: What Is This Ricky Gervais Show About?

At its core, this is a traditional British sitcom that happens to be drawn. A group of feral cats lives in one room of a crumbling house because nobody wants them, and that room and each other are all they have. Gus talks like the toughest and smartest one there, and he is neither.

Ponce, a pampered cat with no street sense, brings a class clash to the group. The story gets its heart when the cats find a lost kitten and decide to help her get home, which slowly turns Gus into a reluctant father figure.

Along the way, the show pokes at themes of death, poverty, friendship, and how much humans overrate themselves. As Gervais put it, “They’re cats, but they could be people. Very sweary people” (via British Comedy Guide).

Alley Cats Trailer: What Does the Trailer Reveal?

Netflix released the full trailer on June 22, 2026, timed to Annecy. It opens with Gus in classic Gervais mode, grumpy and certain he is right, before moving through the gang bickering about life, love, and death against warm, hand-drawn 2D backgrounds.

On August 3, ahead of premiere week, Netflix followed it with an extended four-minute preview that gives a much fuller taste of the humour, the voices, and the shabby world the cats live in.

Where to Watch Alley Cats?

Alley Cats is a Netflix original, so the only place to stream it is Netflix, from August 7, 2026. It is included with every plan, including the cheaper ad-supported tier. If you want more Gervais animation afterwards, The Ricky Gervais Show is also on the service.

Are you excited for Alley Cats on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below.