The Outlaws City locations in the spotlight as comedy makes debut
BIt’s a very visual city, covered in graffiti... and it has a real mix of people. And yet it still hasn’t played itself on screen very often
BC One crime series The Outlaws premieres this evening – and Bristolians can have fun spotting filming locations across the city.
The Bristol-set comedy-drama about offenders on community service – written and directed by Hanham-born Stephen Merchant – airs at 9pm tonight.
Earlier this month, Merchant told the Post the city is “like another character” in the six-part series, adding: “It gets used a lot but not as itself.
“It’s nice to be able to claim the city as my own in a way, as someone from the area, and put it on the map to some degree.
“It’s visually very, very striking and people forget that.”
The Bottle Yard Studios have shared a list of the Bristol areas you will be able to spot in The Outlaws, including the former Sea Mills Community Centre site, which served as the main filming location.
The disused building – spraypainted for the shoot by Bristolian graffiti artist Inkie – is used as the community centre that the main characters must fix up as part of the Community Payback scheme.
The Galleries shopping centre in Broadmead also features as the setting for the opening stunt sequence, where academic highflyer turned shoplifter Rani (Rhianne Barretto) is chased by police.
Hengrove’s Bottle Yard Studios were also used heavily, for sets including the home of Margaret (Dolly Wells), who is the daughter of “twinkly-eyed small-time crook” Frank (Christopher Walken, right); the offices of family business Halloran & Son, led by “right-wing blowhard businessman” John Halloran (Darren Boyd); as well as probation offices, police cells and interview rooms.
Merchant said: “Obviously, I know the city quite well, but I’d never worked here.
“It’s a very visual city, covered in graffiti, it’s where Banksy got started, and it has a real mix of people.
“You’ve got the gentrified Clifton neighbourhoods and the more inner-city urban bits, the suspension bridge and the vast gorge.
“And yet it still hasn’t played itself on screen very often. It’s used mainly for period pieces or doubling as somewhere else.
“So it’s fun to try and make the city a character in the show.
“I know this is going to seem like a slightly fanciful comparison, but
a number of people have said it to me independently: there’s some comparisons between Bristol and San Francisco.
“I don’t mean it has the grandeur and the glamour; but it’s on the water, it has the very striking bridge, it has the hills and the colour and a sort of bohemian, artsy side mixed with money and inner city drabness.
“The more people have come to Bristol, whether it’s American executives or otherwise, it’s turned out to be a comparison that’s not as absurd as it might seem on the surface.
“What’s always important to me – and we realised this with the success of The Office – is that often, the more specific you are, the more universal it becomes. When you’re trying to be too general and you live in a no man’s land people find it harder to dial in because they sense it seems inauthentic.”