Ricky Gervais gave viewers an unexpected delight during his appearance on Tuesday's Lorraine, by bringing his beloved dog Anti onto the show.
The actor, whose pet appears alongside him in his Netflix black comedy After Life, praised his German Shepherd for being 'such a good girl,' after the final series of show was universally praised by fans.
During his appearance on the show, Ricky reassured fans that despite fears his character's dog Brandy could meet his maker at the end of After Life's third series, his pet will still be alive by the series' end.
Sweet: Ricky Gervais gave viewers an unexpected delight during his appearance on Tuesday's Lorraine, by bringing his beloved dog Anti onto the show
Appearing on the show with Anti seated alongside him, Ricky admitted he did feel pressure for the third series of After Life to deliver.
He said: 'The emotional response, peole coming up to me in the streets saying it helped them, you realised that everyone's grieving.
'It was never meant to be a show about grief, but more and more I felt a responsibility to treat it with respect.
'When I first came up with it i thought ''can people laugh at this?'' but yes, if you treat it well.
Sweet: The actor, whose pet appears alongside him called Brandy in his Netflix black comedy After Life, praised his German Shepherd for being 'such a good girl'
Jovial: Appearing on the show with Anti seated alongside him, Ricky admitted he did feel pressure for the third series of After Life to deliver
'People say 'i was just like that' people like seeing a bit of themselves on telly, even if it's the bad stuff, it makes them feel normal and not being well is normal.
'Some people came up to me and they were therapists and they said they used the show in some of their sessions.'
Ricky also reassured his fans that his beloved dog won't meet a grisly end during the show's closing series, following a flurry of concerned tweets from fans.
He added: 'Everyone was saying is the dog ok, ive been saying it for a year - the dog does not die. I promise, the dog does not die. She's gonna live forever.'
Important: 'It was never meant to be a show about grief, but more and more I felt a responsibility to treat it with respect,' he said
Calling his dog 'a good girl,' Ricky then clarified to Lorraine: 'I'm talking to the dog, not you.'
Ricky has warmed viewers' hearts with his dog's appearance as Brandy in After Life, acting as a huge emotional support for his character Tony following the death of his wife Lisa.
The Office star also detailed how he adopted his beloved foster cat, seven months after the death of his feline Ollie.
He added: 'We lost our cat Ollie at 16 at the beginning of the pandemic and I wasn't going to get another one until it was all over but Jane said ''we'll foster'' and this beautiful big lump of love came.
'She hid for the first day then she got on my lap and she looked at
