Stephen Merchant

It'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.

The Outlaws review

These Outlaws are so confused... I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

TV 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.

The 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.

The Outlaws review

Christopher Walken runs riot in brilliantly silly crime comedy.

The Outlaws review

Christopher Walken does community service in slightly naff misfit comedy.

The Outlaws, BBC1, review

Stephen Merchant's sitcom tries too hard not to be The Office.

The Outlaws review

Star-studded Stephen Merchant series is Walken in a cringe comedy wonderland.

How Stephen Merchant took comedy to the dark side

Mix a hard-nosed businessman, a left-wing activist and a cocaine-fuelled social media star and you don't exactly have a foolproof-sounding recipe for friendship. But Stephen Merchant's latest TV series The Outlaws isn't quite what it seems. It features a group of disparate characters thrown together to complete community service.

Stephen Merchant interview

"I see The Outlaws as a suburban, low-rent western."