‘The Offenders’: BBC gives first look at Stephen Merchant series

“The Offenders,” a new series starring Stephen Merchant, Christopher Walken and Rhianne Barreto, is coming to BBC and Amazon Prime Video.Photo courtesy of BBC Press Office

By Annie Martin

The BBC is giving a glimpse of the new series The Offenders.

The network released a first-look photo for the show Wednesday featuring series creator and star Stephen Merchant.

The picture shows Merchant and The Offenders cast posing against a wall painted with graffiti. The actors all wear bright safety vests and hold brooms, shovels and other cleanup tools.

Christopher Walken, Rhianne Barreto, Gamba Cole, Darren Boyd, Clare Perkins and Eleanor Tomlinson co-star. The series also features Richard E. Grant and Julia Davis.

The BBC said The Offenders is “part crime thriller, and part character study -- with humor and heart.” The show follows seven strangers who are forced to complete a community payback sentence in Bristol.

“As their unlikely new friendships intersect with their complicated private lives, The Offenders must unite to protect their own from Bristol’s most dangerous criminal gang,” an official synopsis reads.

Production is underway on The Offenders, which hails from the BBC and Amazon Studios. The series will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the United Kingdom and stream on Amazon Prime Video in the United States.

Merchant is known for co-creating the British version of The Office.

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