The absence of Perry's Friends left a void in this patchy documentary: Christopher Stevens gives The One About Matthew Perry three stars

Rachel, Ross, Phoebe, Monica and Joey... none of them showed up. Perhaps they weren't really his friends at all.

The One About Matthew Perry, a three-part documentary recounting the actor's career and self-destructive, ultimately fatal addictions, didn't feature any of his fellow stars from Friends, the sitcom that made him internationally famous.

It might be the producers decided that to have Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, Courtney Cox or Matt LeBlanc as interviewees would turn proceedings into a celebrity-fest, serving up the same well-worn anecdotes with a side order of hand-wringing.

On the other hand, maybe Perry's co-stars were simply too expensive. But their absence, other than in archive footage, left a void, one that was doubly strange since Friends has enjoyed an entire second life on Netflix. It aired on the platform in the UK for eight years, almost as long as the original ten-year TV run.

In place of the stars, we met some of Perry's real friends, including Roger Castillo and David Pressman. In their teens and 20s, the three of them were close pals, though their group had a fourth member — Hank Azaria, who voices many of the characters on The Simpsons.

The One About Matthew Perry, a three-part documentary recounting the actor's career and self-destructive, ultimately fatal addictions, didn't feature any of his fellow stars from Friends

Pictured: (l-r) Courteney Cox Arquette as Monica Geller, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay

Hank didn't appear either.

Nor did famous ex-girlfriends such as Julia Roberts. Perry did have loyal chums and family, including sister Mia Perry

Bowick, who stuck around throughout his troubled life, but anyone who knew nothing of his story would have been left with the impression that he was a megastar and everyone else was a mere supporting actor.

My three-star rating is an average. The first episode is barely worth two-out-of-five: it goes into detail about his forgotten TV vehicles before Friends, but skates over the lonely childhood that, in his autobiography, he describes in a long, drawn-out howl of pain.

It also turns a drunken car crash into a sort of sitcom mishap: he was on his way home from a party with a female friend when he nearly killed the pair of them. 

She shrugs it off with a wry smile, saying, 'That was the end of any potential romantic relationship.'

The first episode is barely worth two-out-of-five: it goes into detail about his forgotten TV vehicles before Friends, but skates over the lonely childhood that, in his autobiography, he describes in a long, drawn-out howl of pain

The second episode gets better, as his life gets worse. 

He called his book Friends, Lovers And The Big Terrible Thing, and his addictions were truly terrible. 

He described going to open house viewings so he could rifle through the bathroom cabinets in search of pills.

But Perry's instinct was to blame everyone else — business managers, parents, doctors, fame, and especially God — and the documentary hides behind the same excuses. It is not until the final hour that the pretence of glamour is stripped away, and we see the real mess.

That's because, by the start of part three, Perry is in a coma. 

He survived, but died soon after, drowning in a drug-induced stupor in his jacuzzi. He was alone and, at that moment, friendless.