Martin Clunes has signed on to the new ITV show ‘Out There’.
Martin Clunes has signed on to the new ITV show Out There
The 62-year-old actor, who appeared in ‘Doc Martin’, will be working with his ‘Manhunt’ director Marc Evans and screenwriter Ed Whitmore again on the upcoming six-part drama as farmer and single father Nathan Williams, whose livelihood and family are threatened by local county lines drug dealers and urban gangs that are using the British countryside as a field of operations.
In a statement, Martin said: “I’m very happy to be working with Marc Evans and Ed Whitmore again after the success of ‘Manhunt’.
“‘Out There’ couldn’t be more different from ‘Doc Martin’. It’s pretty dark, but definitely a story worth telling.”
Martin will also star alongside ‘No Return’ actor Louis Ashbourne Serkis, 19, who is set to play his teen son Johnny.
In an effort to protect his son from becoming engulfed by sinister forces, Nathan will go toe-to-toe with the gangs and embark on a personal journey that will push him even further out of his comfort zone.
ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill added: “‘Out There’ is a brilliantly compelling drama, from the team behind ‘Manhunt’, where county lines become very real for a father and son already dealing with the modern challenges of running a farm.
“Martin Clunes is wonderful as Nathan, in a drama full of surprises, as he tries to navigate the best way to save his son, in a world he doesn’t understand.”
Ed Whitmore said he wanted to capture the “vicious and ruthless” world of drug dealing through the show.
He explained: “County lines is a particularly vicious and ruthless wave of drug dealing that uses fear and violence to coerce, often vulnerable, young people into working as runners and dealers. It has become a serious and rapidly increasing problem across the whole of the UK, so it felt like an important and timely story to tell.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the notion of things being hidden in plain sight and the way in which different social worlds can co-exist cheek-by-jowl until, one day, they collide.
“The fundamental premise of ‘Out There’ - a widowed farmer who discovers that his son has fallen foul of county lines - immediately spoke to me as a story I wanted to tell.”
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