Christopher Walken has joined the cast of 'The Offenders'.
Christopher Walken
The 77-year-old actor will play an Offender undertaking community service in the Stephen Merchant-directed show.
The six-part series will actually mark the Hollywood icon's first lead British TV role, and Stephen is delighted that filming has been able to resume in Bristol after the coronavirus shutdown earlier this year.
He said: "Like so many other productions, we’d just begun filming when Covid-19 struck and we had to shut-down. I’m delighted that we’re now finally able to resume filming with this incredible cast and finish this long-standing passion project.
"This is the first series I’ve made in my hometown of Bristol and I’m so excited to showcase the city and utilise the amazing local talent."
The series tells the stories of seven strangers from different walks of life, all of whom are brought together to complete a Community Payback sentence in Bristol.
As the story unfolds, they become involved with a dangerous criminal gang.
The new series will also star the likes of Rhianne Barreto, Gamba Cole, Darren Boyd, Clare Perkins and Eleanor Tomlinson. The show will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK and on Amazon Prime Video in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Stephen, 46, first found international fame after co-writing and co-directing 'The Office' with Ricky Gervais.
However, he previously admitted that they have different approaches to life and comedy.
He explained: "Ricky has a little bit more of a punk rock element in his DNA. He likes the idea of kicking at the system for the sake of it.
"What I do share with him is the feeling that nothing should be off-limits. You should be able to talk about a subject and not get shut down simply because you brought it up."
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