Paul Abbott

Preview - No Offence

No Offence was one of the surprise comedy hits of 2016. Paul Abbott's fly on the wall style crime-fighting comedy is full of sharp dialogue and strong visual humour shot not so much on the mean streets but on the less salubrious 'burbs of Manchester.

Paul Abbott: 'Shameless became too hysterical.'

As darkly comic police drama No Offence returns to Channel 4, the scriptwriter talks about former hits, problems with pitching, and State of Play 2.

An irreverent take on the cop drama, Paul Abbott's foul-mouthed and funny series was bolstered by a trio of fine performances from Joanna Scanlan, Elaine Cassidy and Alexandra Roach. While sometimes it was too undisciplined for its own good, No Offence's combination of believable storylines and a rather controversial central plot thread made each episode gripping viewing. Abbott's truly shocking ending left fans of the show wanting more and luckily we'll be getting that when No Offence returns next.

By the end of the first episode, NSFW (as the kids will call it) definitely seems like it's got the potential to be a strong comedy addition for Channel 4. And it's in good time too, after the end of Paul Abbott's sizzlingly brilliant No Offence last week.

The idea behind this show is that everyone has three parts to their life - work, social life and love. We can survive if two are dire, but what happens when all three go down the pan?

With Zawe Ashton, one of the stand-out stars of Fresh Meat, giving a strong comic performance, this six-parter looks set to have us in hysterics.

This week saw the final episode of Paul Abbott's comedy drama No Offence which certainly finished with a bang. As those of us who've been watching the series know, the central plot running throughout the eight episodes has been the team's attempts to catch a serial killer who has been targeting girls with Down's syndrome. The penultimate instalment revealed that the killer was in fact someone that was close to the team and the final revelation shocked me. The finale saw Viv (Joanna Scanlan) and Dinah (Elaine Cassidy) argue over the best way to deal with this revelation. This led to several odd sequences in which the killer tried to get one up on the ladies before Dinah finished him off in a unique fashion. I'm someone who has always championed No Offence's odd mix of comedy and drama however I felt the macabre humour in this final instalment was a little much. I felt it also overshadowed a rather complex subplot in which supporting character PC Jonah Mitchell (Ste Johnson) was being sued for his part in the death of a mother and child. I think that this story was strong enough to feature early on in the series and I believe it got lost in the main plot. In fact I think that that Abbott and his writing team have struggled to incorporate two stories in each episode with either the serial killer story or the plot of the week getting lost in the shuffle. At the same time I still feel that Abbott has a knack for crafting strong, memorable characters at that's certainly true of both Viv and Dinah. I think Abbott has also proved that there's plenty of different ways that the crime drama can go and for the most part No Offence's blackly comic tone has worked a treat. Therefore I'm excited that the show is returning for a second series next year as I think it's a drama that certainly deserves another run.

No Offence to return for second series on Channel 4

Filming of Shameless creator Paul Abbott's comic police drama, starring Joanna Scanlan, set to begin in early 2016.

It's the last in the series of the cop drama and you wouldn't expect the formidable DI Viv Deering (Joanna Scanlan) and her team to bow out quietly. Jonah (Ste Johnson) finds his job in danger when he's involved in a disastrous attempt to save the life of a mother and her baby. Meanwhile, two of the force's most fabulous women, Deering and Dinah, clash head-on. Warmhearted, straight-talking and a little bit wrong to the end, a second series of Paul Abbott's quirky police drama would be welcome.

Radio Times review

Oh Viv, what have you done? In the last episode the serial murderer of women with Down's syndrome was discovered, but our favourite coarse cop acted with outrageous disregard for the law.

She decides to deal with things her way and has to make Dinah her confidante. But will it catch up with both of them? As Paul Abbott's punchy crime drama ends, things get messy, in all senses; there's a grotesque murder and the script wanders all over the place. It seems to be striving for some kind of Hitchcockian black comedy a la The Trouble with Harry or even Rope, but fails.

Still, Viv (Joanna Scanlan) et al are a great team. Here's hoping we see them again.

Radio Times review

Dinah and Viv look askance at all of their closest colleagues, all of whom are under suspicion as the hunt for the serial killer creeps towards a conclusion. And when the answer is finally revealed in the penultimate episode of Paul Abbott's deft thriller, it's a shocker.

But there are other cases to occupy the time of the raggle-taggle gang of Manchester detectives. A top surgeon is shot dead at point blank range, apparently at random, as he takes his daily jog. When the cops dig deeper, they find that though the victim might have been a genius in the operating theatre, he was an appalling failure as a human being, a bully and a tartar.

Why we need more bold drama like No Offence

Creating brave TV like Paul Abbott's cop drama isn't a criminal act, says Alison Graham.