Derek is a British comedy-drama television series starring, written by and directed by Ricky Gervais. The pilot was produced by Derek Productions Ltd. for Channel 4 and aired on 12 April 2012. Channel 4 describes the show as "A bittersweet comedy drama about a group of outsiders living on society's margins".On 9 May 2012, Channel 4 announced it had commissioned a full series, which aired from 30 January 2013. On 4 March 2013 (two days before the final episode of the first series was aired), they announced Derek had been recommissioned for a second series, to be shown again on Channel 4 and later on Netflix.The first series became available for streaming on Netflix on 12 September 2013. The second series, consisting of six episodes, started airing on 23 April 2014 on Channel 4 and concluded on 28 May 2014. In November 2014, Channel 4 announced that a 60-minute "final" special episode of Derek would air in the United Kingdom on 22 December 2014.