Return of the West Country Wild Bunch
Stephen Merchant and Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning are criminally good in a new series of the BBC comedy
Jessica Gunning is now a huge name thanks to her performance as the stalker in Netflix hit Baby Reindeer. The series had 60 million views in its first month. But her fans already know her for stealing the limelight in Stephen Merchant’s warm-hearted crime caper. The premise of the show is that a motley crew of seven minor offenders with very different backgrounds – from a young lad in thrall to a gang to a veteran political activist and an aristo influencer – are forced to muck in together on a Community Payback scheme in Bristol.
Jessica Gunning oversees them as their supervisor Diane, but she aspires to be a detective. At the start of the third series our ‘Poundland Poirot’ has a swagger about her – she’s just qualified as a Police Community Support Officer and is one step closer to emulating her heroes,
Cagney and Lacey.
The essence of the bittersweet story so far (you can catch up with series one and two on BBC iPlayer) is that the seven likeable losers can’t believe their luck when they come upon a stash of cash, which they decide to keep. But trouble looms when it turns out that the money belongs to a menacing drug lord, known as ‘The Dean’, and he wants it back.
A fine ensemble cast are helped by writing that blends comedy and drama and mostly hits the mark, undercutting with a snappy one-liner whenever things threaten to become too soppy or too gruesome.
We have moved on six months for this new run, which reintroduces our hapless heroes before hitting its stride in episode two.
Stephen Merchant as needy, nerdy, ‘bug-eyed beanpole’ Greg, is in a new relationship but seems unable to progress things beyond TV dinners of cheese and pickle sandwiches. His flatmate, Lady Gabby (Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson), has no such trouble, her passionate new affair rocking the house day and night. ‘Mrs Cosgrove next door complained about the noise,’ says Greg. ‘She was
watching This Morning and couldn’t hear Alison Hammond laughing, and that’s saying something.’
Meanwhile, well-meaning Ben (Gamba Cole) has recovered from his heartbreak, but John (Darren Boyd) has separated from his wife and is struggling to control his stress with ‘Gwyneth Paltrow’s favourite mindfulness app’. All their lives are thrown out of kilter again, though, when reckless Rani (Rhianne Barreto) re-emerges… with a body.
The magnificent seven are down to six for this run as Christopher Walken, a prize catch for the first two series, has left, bar a cameo in episode three. But Claes
Bang (Dracula) is back as ‘The Dean’, and Richard E. Grant returns as Lady Gabby’s foul-mouthed father. Merchant may now live in Los Angeles and hang out with the stars, but The Outlaws shows that the beanpole can still laugh at himself and that his heart remains here. He’s still more West Country than West Coast.