Martin Clunes’ ITV drama Out There axed
Martin Clunes' ITV drama 'Out There' has been axed due to disappointing viewing figures.
Martin Clunes’ ITV drama ‘Out There’ has been cancelled.
The show - which saw the 63-year-old actor portray a father attempting to protect his son from becoming involved in the dangerous underworld of drug dealing - aired earlier this year, though Martin has now admitted a second series won't happen due to its disappointing viewing figures.
He told The Sun newspaper’s TV Biz column: “We were keen on doing a second series but ITV aren’t, it seems. It didn’t quite pull the numbers they wanted, unfortunately.”
ITV confirmed ‘Out There’ wouldn’t be renewed for a second series.
The network said: “We are really proud of ‘Out There’ and would like to thank Martin and the production team for delivering a brilliant series.
“We do always hope to see our series return and we are sorry we didn’t get this drama to connect with a big enough audience to see that happen.”
The six-part drama followed 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.
‘Out There’ reunited Martin with his ‘Manhunt’ director Marc Evans and screenwriter Ed Whitmore, and was produced by Buffalo Pictures - the same company behind the comedy drama ‘Doc Martin’.
At the time of the programme’s announcement, 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.”
The ‘Men Behaving Badly’ actor starred opposite ‘No Return’s Louis Ashbourne - who played Nathan’s teen son, Johnny.
In order to protect his son from becoming engulfed by sinister forces, ‘Out There’ saw Nathan go toe-to-toe with the gangs, and took the farmer on a personal journey that pushed him even further out of his comfort zone.
Screenwriter Ed Whitmore said he wanted to capture the “vicious and ruthless” world of drug dealing through ‘Out There’.
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.”
