Ricky Gervais has described a cover of John Lennon’s Imagine by a host of A-list celebrities as “awful”.
Last week actress Gal Gadot shared a video of her and other celebrities including Natalie Portman and Will Ferrell singing along to the song after saying that the lockdown had left her feeling “philosophical”.
Comedian Gervais criticised their rendition of the song in an interview with Nihal Arthanayake on BBC Radio 5 Live.
He said: “It’s not that bad – they’re probably all very nice people.
“It was an awful rendition, but let’s assume they were doing it for good reasons – to help normal nobodies.
“Sometimes you can just see in their eye that they’re going, ‘I could cry at the beauty of my personality – I am so beautiful, I could well up at what a wonderful thing I’m doing’.
“Everyone sees that.”
The video has been viewed on Instagram more than nine million times.
Other celebrities who appear in the video are Jamie Dornan, Pedro Pascal, Zoe Kravitz, Chris O’Dowd, Leslie Odom Jr, Eddie Benjamin, Ashley Benson, Lynda Carter, Jimmy Fallon, Norah Jones, Kaia Gerber, Cara Delevingne, Annie Mumolo, Labrinth and Maya Rudolph.
Israeli Wonder Woman star Gadot sang the intro to Lennon’s 1971 classic before a host of celebrities took it in turns to sing portions of the song.
The 34-year-old said she had been inspired by a viral video from Italy of a man playing Imagine on his trumpet while quarantined neighbours join in from their homes.