Paul Abbott

Paul Abbott's new Manchester-set police drama starts with a bang as you would expect. Dina (Elaine Cassidy) is a determined, unafraid powerhouse of policing; Joy (Alexandra Roach) is her nervy colleague; and Joanna Scanlan is Viv, their boss. It's the women who lead this, and brilliant support comes fromPaul Ritter and Will Mellor. We didn't really need another police drama but, if there has to be one, Abbott is the man for the job. It thrusts and bulges with his energy and heart while avoiding procedural cliche. A brilliant start.

Radio Times review

There's a breathless and brutal opening to this coarse, crude, rude, often very funny Paul Abbott comedy drama as a young detective, Dinah Kowalska, chases a suspect through the streets of Manchester.

Kowalska (Elaine Cassidy) is a highly capable woman who's in with a shot at making detective sergeant. But her terrifying boss Detective Inspector Vivienne Deering (the magnificent Joanna Scanlan, from The Thick of It and Getting On) wants a little word with her first.

Abbott is a past master at creating brilliantly well-rounded, realistic women characters (Shameless, State of Play) and Deering, who is eye-wateringly forthright (truly, No Offence is not for the faint-hearted) is particularly vivid. And, in the noble tradition of TV cops, she has no truck with authority - her jobsworth boss is the very suave Colin Salmon - as she hunts a serial killer targeting women with Down's syndrome.

No Offence: meet the stars

The women are calling the shots in Paul Abbott's new Manchester-set procedural. We get leads Joanna Scanlan, Alexandra Roach and Elaine Cassidy together to talk blood, sweat, tears (and Bez).

No Offence is an addictive, funny & disturbing cop show

Paul Abbott's eight-part police series lurches from the comic to the grim, never letting you get too comfortable. And it makes for a thrilling watch, says Kasia Delgado...

Does Paul Abbott's new drama deliver?

"The best incentive to write T.V. is to look at what's not there." This was the reason that Paul Abbott gave when he was first asked about where the idea for his new Channel 4 show No Offence came from.

Joanna Scanlan on No Offence

Comedy queen Joanna Scanlan plays sexy D.I. Vivienne Deering in Paul Abbott's darkly funny No Offence.

Will Mellor on new comedy-drama No Offence

"As soon as I heard it was a Paul Abbott script, I said I'd do it."

Paul Abbott turns his attention to Manchester's police

His new series is set among a group of dysfunctional coppers in Manchester and once again mixes family drama, social mayhem and black comedy.

No Offence preview

With Paul Abbott behind No Offence, I have no doubt the series will quickly become a must-see and the likes of Viv and Dinah will become as well-loved and iconic as Frank Gallagher from Shameless.

Paul Abbott interview

He was deserted by both parents, raped at the age of 11 and attempted suicide twice before the age of 16. Paul Abbott's background is worse than anything in his most famous creation, Shameless. As his latest venture, a police drama, comes to our screens, he tells Gerard Gilbert that he has finally exorcised his demons.