Someone’s going to turn up with a dead body
As comedy crime thriller e Outlaws returns, Rachael Davis catches up with creator Stephen Merchant and star Jessica Gunning
WITH Bristol-set comedy crime thriller e Outlaws now in its third series, things are really starting to ramp up for the ragtag bunch of community service colleagues. e series, co-created by e O ce co-writer Stephen Merchant, follows a group of strangers from all walks of life who meet when they have to serve a community service sentence together.
eir luck changed when they found a bag of cash, but they soon discovered that its true owners were dangerous people and not to be messed with.
Famous faces like Merchant, Christopher Walken and Richard E Grant come together with newer actors cutting their teeth to form an ensemble cast that nds the perfect balance
nd between thriller and comedy, which proves all the more vital as the stakes get higher in the plot of series three.
Here to tell us all about it is Merchant, 49, who also plays terrible lawyer Greg, and Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning, 38, who plays community service supervisor, Diane.
Stephen, where do we nd the gang in series three?
SM: When I went into the writers’ room on this series, I said: “All I know is that someone’s going to show up with a dead body.” And I didn’t have any idea whose body it was, or why they had their body, but I knew that if I’m doing series three of a crime thriller, someone is going to show up with a dead body. So that was our jumping o point.
Tell me more!
SM: e idea is that they think they’re moving on with their lives after the hardships of the last series. ey framed this ruthless drug dealer, the Dean, he’s awaiting trial, and they think they’re in the clear – then Rani shows up with a body in the back of her car.
Meanwhile, the ruthless crime lord is likely to get o and come seeking revenge. So it’s throwing those two pressures at them, and then seeing how these sort of relatively suburban people cope with that. How do you bury a body? And how do you outwit a ruthless crime lord for the second time? Just continuing to turn the heat up on them.
I think it’s the highest stakes that they’ve faced in all of the series.
As a writer, how do you nail e Outlaws’ balance between thriller and comedy?
SM: I think the jumping o point for me is always, How would I react in these situations? And there’s natural humour that comes from that, because I wouldn’t know how to dispose of a body!
So that’s where a lot of the humour comes from, to me – real people reacting to these extreme situations. We write the crime thriller story, and make that as real as possible, or as thrilling as possible, and as dramatic as possible, and then we try to add the humour on top of that. So the stakes are high, and the spine of it feels dramatic, and then (see) what can we do with the characters, and lay humour and emotion on top.
Speaking of writing, there’s a new member of the writers’ room this series – Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning! How was that for you, Jessica?
JG: I felt very lucky that I was in the writers’ room this time as I co-wrote an episode with
Stephen, episode ve. It’s been really exciting to be a part of helping draft the storyline for series three and get to know the characters more than I did before.
Occasionally, on series one and two, me and Stephen would ad-lib little bits... I was always really involved and liked watching how it was done, and I think Stephen recognised that and asked would I like to join the writers’ room.
I’ve learnt so much from him and all of the writers, and it was a real honour to see it all come to life.
Where do we nd your character Diane this series?
JG: Diane is here, still as a Community Payback O cer, and she is training up a new character, Stan, played by Harry Trevaldwyn. He is a superstar. Best person ever. Love him to bits. So, Diane’s training him up, and she’s also a PCSO, as at the end of series two she graduated.
How about Greg, Stephen?
SM: He’s been pulled along by circumstances in all of the series. He’s this ine ectual lawyer, and he’s kind of pushed and pulled by the other characters. I wanted to see a moment where he stands up and tries to prove to himself that he could be good at something, because he’s this sort of man who lacks con dence and selfesteem, and I wanted to give him a little boost in this series. at was why I put him in a courtroom, and he has to face down Richard E Grant!
nd
I wrote myself all this legal dialogue to make him sound like he was quite a good lawyer, and then I had to learn all this legal dialogue as an actor. I bloody hated the writer me, because the actor me could not learn these lines for love nor money. It was gobbledygook!
How was it being back in Bristol?
JG: All of my favourite scenes were the ones we lmed on the City Farm in Bristol. It’s so amazing to see it all come to life.
SM: e idea (for e Outlaws) came about because my parents used to work for community services in Bristol, so it ended up being a really natural home for the show. Having considered other places I was like, “Actually, why am I not thinking about Bristol? at’s such a great backdrop for this”.
It’s the rst time I’ve done something where I knew the city really intimately, so you felt you could infuse the show with some of its DNA and some of its personality.
And it meant that my parents could take in my washing and deliver me some Sunday lunches, because they still live there. So it was a win-win in all sorts of ways.
Outlaws,