I asked Christopher Walken ‘Do you mind painting over a Banksy?’
As hit comedy The Outlaws returns, DANIELLE DE WOLFE asks creator Stephen Merchant about on set disasters, trying to recruit Hollywood stars to appear in a sitcom and destroying valuable art in the name of comedy
IT appears that whatever comedian Stephen Merchant touches very quickly turns to gold.
After co-creating hit series including Extras and The Office, The Outlaws is the latest project to catapult his 6ft 7in frame back on to our screens. The show became the BBC’s most-watched comedy of 2021 – receiving a Bafta nomination in the process – and Stephen, 47, is now poised to release the second highly-anticipated series.
Set in his home town of Bristol, the Bafta and Emmy award-winning creator returns as both co-writer and star this time around.
It’s a tale that sees a group of contrasting characters undertake community service – with the resulting antics being both terrifying and utterly hilarious. Also starring Academy Award-winning actor Christopher Walken, Poldark star Eleanor Tomlinson and Black Mirror’s Charles Babalola, the second six-part run has attracted the great and the good of the acting world.
Ahead of its return to BBC1, we sit down with Stephen to discover more about the new series, the logistics of money laundering, and whether the Banksy featured in series one was, in fact, the real deal.
The Outlaws is back. Was it as enjoyable to write as the first series?
Well, the fun of this series was we started shooting the first and then it shut down about 10 days in. So I said ‘Can we write a second series while we’re in lockdown?’
It allowed us to set up a lot of things in that first year that we could then expand upon in this one and really turn the heat up under the characters and make them sweat...
I’m very pleased with this series, I think it builds to a really nice, really very satisfying climax. I’m very, very proud of the final episode.
Some pretty renowned celebrities have undertaken community service in the past. Did that ever prove a source of inspiration?
More people than you think have done it – obviously including celebrities, which is why we included a bit of a celebrity character. I always think it’s funny that celebs have, like Boy George, Paris Hilton I think did it, Naomi Campbell – who was a big inspiration for Lady Gabriella PenroseHowe. There’s a great article she wrote for one magazine about her time doing community service in New York. And I just thought it was such a lovely idea, someone who just lives in rarefied air and has never been with the hoi polloi before.
Series one saw the group paint over street art – was that a bona fide Banksy?
There was a mix of ‘There’s no way that’s real!’ and ‘How dare they destroy a Banksy!’. I was pleased, because it was exactly what we’d hoped for really, trying to keep it as a nice surprise for viewers. It says ‘Thanks to Banksy’ in the credits – and it was real.
How did you get such an elusive artist on board?
I had the idea as obviously he’s famous for having his art in Bristol. Initially, we were thinking we’d have a fake Banksy. And then we thought ‘Well, what if we
could get the real Banksy?’ And it seemed like an idea that would appeal to him, right? Because he’s destroyed his work in the past in different fun ways.
And it felt fun that we would destroy it on the show; it would only exist within the programme. So we managed to find a go-between and he was up for the idea.
Did you get to meet him?
He must have come over the fence one night, because we didn’t ever see him. We never met him.
One morning we came in and there was a Banksy. We kept it hidden and then, about six weeks later, I went to Christopher Walken in his trailer and said ‘Do you mind painting over a Banksy this morning?’ We swore the cast and crew to secrecy, and everyone kept it quiet.
Was there any behind-the-scenes drama this time around?
Well, obviously, the biggest mishap is when our 20ft costume truck ended up in Bristol Harbour – and that was just for my shoes.
The truth is, we don’t know how it ended up in the harbour, but all of the costumes were in that truck, and are now all covered in Bristol mud. Luckily, it was the last day of filming, so we’d shot everything. And it was funny because the image of that truck, half-submerged in the harbour, sort of became a little meme going around, and people put all sorts of things on the side – ‘Brexit!’ or whatever.
Did any actors message you in an attempt to secure a role ahead of series two?
I don’t think I’ve had actors slide into my DMs – that just sounds like someone putting on my Dr Martens and walking around.
Funnily enough, I remember once when I was at university, I came back to my halls of residence and the cleaning lady was wearing my size 14 Dr Martens and clomping around... But we certainly had that with Extras.
I remember running into Liam Neeson at the Graham Norton Show and he said ‘I like what you do, guys.’ We ended up saying ‘Well, you did say you liked what we did; will you come and be in one of our shows?’
What’s the key ingredient for you when it comes to building on-screen suspense?
I think Breaking Bad does it very well – when you’ve given your characters a series of problems, to just keep leaning into those problems. So instead of just having an ‘Oh, everything’s fine now!’, any problems you can think of, just magnify them.
And so all the headaches that have occurred in the first series just magnify. It’s all about how they get themselves out of those problems.
The characters undertake some money laundering activities this time around. How much research went into your writing?
My experience of running criminal enterprises is surprisingly small, I’m ashamed to say. But we did have a researcher called Hugo who was very helpful. He’s done a lot of research and documentaries about criminal gangs and the way they operate.
We spoke to some lawyers as well about money laundering and I was quite interested to discover that the UK is one of the best places to launder money in the world.
More so than cinematic cliches like South America?
You’d think it was offshore companies and stuff, but they’ve tightened up the rules, whereas we haven’t. So, yeah, I don’t want to use this opportunity to advertise to criminal gangs, but it turns out that we’re a really terrific place for laundering cash.
■ The Outlaws returns to BBC1 and iPlayer tomorrow at 9pm