Gamba Cole
- Actor
Press clippings
The Outlaws returning to BBC One for Series 3
The Outlaws is returning for a third series on BBC One, the corporation has confirmed. Creator Stephen Merchant says "we found there was so much meat still on the bone and still so much to do with the characters".
British Comedy Guide, 31st March 2023Edinburgh TV Awards 2022 nominees
After Life, Mandy, Motherland, Sex Education, Stath Lets Flats and The Outlaws are amongst the nominees for the Edinburgh TV Awards 2022.
British Comedy Guide, 16th June 2022The Outlaws review
Slapstick gags, sex, violence... this Merchant caper is a mess.
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail, 6th June 2022The Outlaws Series 2 review
Everything Stephen Merchant does is hilarious.
Jack Seale, The Guardian, 5th June 2022The Outlaws, series 2, review
Stephen Merchant's repeat offenders are criminally underrated.
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph, 5th June 2022Stephen Merchant working on a third series of The Outlaws
Stephen Merchant has told US radio that he's working on ideas for a third series of The Outlaws.
British Comedy Guide, 17th May 2022It's not every day you get to see Christopher Walken ambling about a community project in Bristol. What next: Joe Pesci chugging in Birmingham's Bullring? New BBC One six-part dramedy The Outlaws, starring, co-written and directed by Bristolian Stephen Merchant (The Office; Extras; Hello Ladies), certainly hasn't stinted on casting: Dolly Wells, Clare Perkins, Eleanor Tomlinson, Darren Boyd, Gamba Cole, with Claes Bang and Richard E Grant to come. The premise is that seven small-fry lawbreakers are thrown together to renovate a building as community service in Bristol. So far, so aged-up, earthbound Misfits. Rani, "studious Asian good girl" turned shoplifter, played by Rhianne Barreto, observes: "Everyone's a type: rightwing blowhard, leftwing militant, celebutante, shifty old timer." There's also Merchant as a dweeb solicitor, and Jessica Gunning as an officious overseer, who is inevitably reminiscent of Gareth from The Office, with an added soupçon of civic authority.
I'd wondered if Walken's Hollywood star power would swamp things, but in the overstuffed opener his rogue barely gets a look-in. While some jokes worked, others didn't: one about "working harder than a prostitute with two mattresses" was Jeremy Clarkson-worthy (and no, making it come out of Walken's mouth doesn't make it any funnier). When another (unconnected) sex worker theme pops up in the second episode (both are available), it starts feeling borderline creepy.
Merchant has forged his own path since working with Ricky Gervais, but in The Outlaws opener, too many genres are crudely bolted together: comedy, crime, heartwarming drama, a bizarre segue into gangland Top Boy territory. The second episode, though, is a significant (funnier, tighter) improvement. I'll be sticking around, not least for Walken's Transylvanian mini-break of a face incongruously bobbing around the Bristol environs.
Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 31st October 2021The Outlaws review
These Outlaws are so confused... I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail, 26th October 2021TV review: The Outlaws, BBC One
There are a few cliches - the central casting council estate gang for example - but this is a very watchable, very surprising addition to Stephen Merchant's post-Office CV.
Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 25th October 2021The Outlaws review
It's a wonder no one thought of this before. Community service is a perfect premise for a sitcom: an opportunity to mix up characters from all walks of life in a situation they can't get out of... at least not until their sentences are served.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 25th October 2021