Stephen Merchant

The show concerns a group of strangers brought together by community service. Among them are lawyer and social disaster Greg Dillard, played by Merchant, and Frank Sheldon, a former conman played by Christopher Walken (Pulp Fiction).

Series one saw the gang come into contact with a bag of money, drawing them into the world of the Dean (Claes Bang), a drug lord who wants his cash back. The second series sees the group go deeper into the world of crime, selling drugs themselves.

Merchant created the series alongside Elgin James, and it has so far followed the seven strangers from different walks of life as they are forced together and struggle to reform. In series one, a bag full of money threw them into the dark and dangerous Bristol underbelly.

The eagerly awaited second series of Stephen Merchant’s comedy thriller The Outlaws received its premiere in Bristol in front of a sell-out, home-town audience, ahead of its return to BBC One on 5 June. 

The first episode of a series that follows the lives of seven minor felons completing a Community Payback sentence marked a hugely confident return, delivering big laughs and jeopardy as the characters try to escape the clutches of a violent drug lord. 

Writers Jeff Pope and Neil McKay, the duo behind The Moorside and Appropriate Adult, will shed new light on the story by shifting the perspective to the friends and families of the four young men who were killed by Port.

The police investigation into the deaths of Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor was widely condemned, and forced their relatives to take the case into their own hands.

The Outlaws

Monday

BBC One, 9.00pm

Academy Award-winner Christopher Walken makes his UK television debut in this new comic thriller from Stephen Merchant.

Starring Academy Award-winning actor Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter) in his first lead role on British television, The Outlaws will also feature performances from writer and director Stephen Merchant (The Office), Rhianne Barreto (Honour), Gamba Cole (Hanna), Darren Boyd (Killing Eve), Clare Perkins (EastEnders), Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark), Jessica Gunning (Back) and Charles Babalola (Bancroft).

The series will see Academy Award-winner Christopher Walken make his first lead role on British television. Written, starring and directed by Stephen Merchant (The Office), The Offenders follows a mismatched bunch of strangers brought together to complete a Community Payback sentence in Bristol.

Academy Award-winning actor Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter) will be making his leading British television debut as Frank, a long-established swindler undertaking community service in Bristol.

The Offenders follows seven strangers from vastly different backgrounds, who come together as part of Community Payback sentence in Bristol. As they grow to become more involved in each other’s lives, they also accidentally become entwined with a hardened criminal gang.

The six-part comedy crime thriller set in Bristol will follow a group of seven complete strangers brought together to complete a Community Payback sentence.

The group of misfits from different walks of life form unlikely friendships, and each character’s complicated life is brought into play. As the initial façades begin to slip, The Offenders delves into what made each character the complex people they are today.

When one falls into trouble, the group must unite to protect them from Bristol’s most dangerous gang.