No Offence
- TV comedy drama
- Channel 4
- 2015 - 2018
- 21 episodes (3 series)
Comedy drama created by Paul Abbott which follows a police team who are trying to keep Manchester's streets clean of crime. Stars Joanna Scanlan, Alexandra Roach, Elaine Cassidy, Paul Ritter, Will Mellor and more.
Press clippings Page 8
The women are the best thing on No Offence
Joanna Scanlan, Elaine Cassidy and Alexandra Roach were on top form in the gritty, funny cop show...
Kasia Delgado, Radio Times, 6th May 2015No Offence review
Those missing Shameless will welcome this pacy and provocative new series by writer Paul Abbott.
The Independent (Ireland), 6th May 2015No Offence review - rude but not crude un-PC cop show
There seem to be no no-go areas for this vibrant, rich and warm cop comedy, but the title gathers irony like a snowball as the show rolls on.
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian, 6th May 2015Paul 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.
Julia Raeside, The Guardian, 5th May 2015Radio 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.
Alison Graham, Radio Times, 5th May 2015No 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).
Hannah Verdier, The Guardian, 5th May 2015No 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...
Kasia Delgado, Radio Times, 5th May 2015No Offence, review: 'filthily funny'
Those missing Shameless will welcome this pacy and provocative new series by writer Paul Abbott, says Bernadette McNulty.
Bernadette McNulty, The Telegraph, 5th May 2015No Offence, Channel 4 - TV review
Shameless plus a serial killer plot equals a gleefully outrageous cop show.
Ellen E. Jones, The Independent, 5th May 2015No Offence review: Joanna Scanlan shines
The tone for No Offence is perfectly exemplified by its opening scene in which one of the aforementioned strong female characters, DS Dinah Kowalska, is enjoying a night off from work.
Matt D., Unreality TV, 5th May 2015