Stephen Merchant: How Outlaws creator 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.

They include an American thief, played by none other than Christopher Walken, and a geeky solicitor portrayed by Merchant himself, so there appears little to lead them to bond, other than some acerbic comedic digs at each other's expense.

What seems to start as a light-hearted comedy, peppered with Merchant's trademark observant wit, soon begins to morph into an unsettling suspense story as the group find themselves inadvertently embroiled in a gang war.

Merchant says the idea for the BBC One drama, based in his home city of Bristol, came from the experiences of his parents, who both worked with people ordered by the courts to do community service.

"My mum would be there... building or painting a play area, she would talk about the sort of people that came through and it was interesting because they were such an unlikely group of people.

"There was an old guy that used to keep coming back, month after month, and he was always stealing things like cabbages from allotments and she realised over time that he was just lonely and liked the social aspect of doing community service, which I thought was so sweet and odd.

"And an American businessman that got caught drink-driving, and these kids who are on the wrong side of the tracks. So there was always this idea of an unlikely group of people who have to come together."

But while Merchant's latest series features plenty of hilarious one-liners, it also has a sinister edge, influenced by Merchant's "go to" TV genre.

"I've always liked thrillers, and I like them when there's humour in there but there's still some thrills or drama or darkness," he explains.

"I like that mix of the two things and I think the best episodes of The Sopranos do that and Succession also does that brilliantly.

"After the last couple of years we've all struggled to watch very gloomy things constantly, so I admire [those shows] but... I want there to be a lightness to it and still have a few important points."

A meeting of minds occurred when Merchant, who also co-created The Office, Extras and Lip Sync Battle, was introduced to US writer and producer Elgin James, a former gangster.

"He now runs a show called Mayans MC. Elgin was in gangs as a youth and had been in jail. But his show is very funny and we created The Outlaws together. The clash of those two worlds was what was interesting - he's come from this tough life in Boston and turned his life around and I've done very little prison time!

"He would talk about things which we both find very funny, like that he's a big book reader. Growing up he didn't want the other gang members to know because he thought they would see a weakness, so he would secretly hide them when the gang came round."

Not content with pairing up with a top US TV creator, Merchant then set about signing up Hollywood star Walken.

The veteran actor plays Frank in The Outlaws, a petty thief who has some serious bridge-building to do with his family, especially his grown-up daughter.

So how did Merchant persuade The Deer Hunter and Pulp Fiction actor to make his debut in a UK TV series?

"It's very difficult to get in touch with him because he doesn't have email or a mobile, he only has an old landline phone. We got the script to him, and then I had this call asking if I could come and see Christopher in Connecticut where he lives, so I flew to see him.

"Someone told me beforehand - which was great advice - that Chris is very comfortable with silence, and true enough, he's in his late 70s, he has nothing to prove and he's just a very thoughtful person - he'd ask a question about a character, you'd give an answer and he'd just think about it.

"And I would just sit there as well... and think about it. So the meeting consequently lasted four hours!

"By the end of it, we seemed to hit it off, he liked the idea and he liked the character and I'd sold Bristol. It is a great city and there's loads of great restaurants and culture and, of course, he came and then couldn't see any of that because we had to film during lockdown."

Despite that, Walken describes Bristol as "terrific".

"There's a strong counterculture here. First time I was here there were riots, a lot of noise outside. Second time there was also a lot of noise outside, but I think it was on account of the soccer," he says.

Frank's fractured relationship with his nearest and dearest is a common theme, with most of the characters suffering from loneliness even - or especially - within their own families.

Merchant also wanted to challenge the divisive discourse around former US president Donald Trump and Brexit that created a strain in families and friendship groups, and sometimes contributed to that isolation.

"It was the idea that they [the characters] are all types. It was when Trump was in power and Brexit was happening, and it felt like on both sides of the Atlantic we were getting very compartmentalised and everyone was in their bubbles reading the social media that reinforced their viewpoints."

An unlikely connection is made between John (Darren Boyd), an anti-woke and un-PC middle class businessman, and Myrna (Clare Perkins), a left-wing activist. There's also a blossoming romance between straight-A student and shoplifter Rani (Rhianne Barreto) and security guard Christian (Gamba Cole), who is trying to extricate himself and his younger sister from the gang on his estate.

"It felt like everybody was getting homogenised into types in the press and just generally, so it's interesting to take those stereotypes, and then to peel them back and see what makes them tick and also force the other characters to interact with them," Merchant says.

"The idea was to suggest that we have a lot in common ultimately, and that there's something positive to be had in talking to people who you don't agree with."

Merchant himself plays Greg, a lawyer who finds himself with the motley crew clearing up an old community centre after he's had an embarrassing encounter with a sex worker. He also forms an unexpected connection with social media star Gabby (Poldark's Eleanor Tomlinson).

"It just seemed fun - I'm kind of a useful resource because I'm already here [in Bristol] anyway."

Was he tempted to give himself the best lines?

"I think I've been very generous actually! I've given a lot of funny stuff away to other people. I'm quite happy to be the straight man in the scene.

"I could have probably given myself a more challenging role but let's be honest, if you need an awkward, nerdy guy, then I may as well play it."

The Outlaws begins on Monday 25 October on BBC One at 21:00 BST.