FIVE MINUTES WITH... STEPHEN MERCHANT

IT appears that whatever comedian Stephen Merchant touches very quickly turns to gold.

The Outlaws is the latest project to catapult him back on to our screens. The show became the BBC’s mostwatched comedy of 2021 receiving a Bafta nomination in the process – and Merchant, 47, is now poised to release the second highly-anticipated series.

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 The Deer Hunter actor Christopher Walken,

Poldark actress 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, we sit down with Merchant to discover more about it.

WAS IT AS ENJOYABLE TO WRITE AS THE FIRST?

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?’ They said yes. And so it allowed us to plot 12 episodes which is quite unusual for TV. 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 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 Penrose-Howe. There’s a great article she wrote for one magazine about her time doing community service in New York. And I thought it was such a lovely idea, someone who just lives in rarefied air and has never been with the hoi polloi before.

THE CHARACTERS UNDERTAKE SOME NEFARIOUS 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 – particularly in Bristol. 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, BBC One, Sunday, 9pm.