When Is Martin Clunes’ Out There On TV?

4 hours ago

Plus what to expect from the series

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Headlines were alight with Doc Martin comparisons (or should we say serious contrasts) when the trailer for Martin Clunes’ next ITV project landed in December. But when will Out There air on TV? Here’s what you need to know.

Martin Clunes’ Out There: Plot, Cast, Release Schedule

Martin Clunes as Nathan & Louis Ashbourne Serkis as Johnny in Out There. (© Buffalo Pictures/ITV)

What Will Happen?

‘How far would you go to protect your own?’ That’s the question at the heart of Out There, a new drama centring on a Welsh farmer Nathan (Martin Clunes) and his teenage son Johnny (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) who is led astray by a county lines drug gang – with disastrous consequences.

As these insidious forces creep closer to his doorstep, family man Nathan must draw on his pent-up anger and grief after the death of his wife Sabine two years prior to take on the gangs that threaten to engulf his son. What ensues is a transformative personal journey that will draw Nathan and Jonny out of the comfort of their rural home, which they realise has been irreparably contaminated by peril.

‘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,’ explains ITV’s head of drama Polly Hill. ‘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.’

Get a taste of the action in the trailer below.

Is Out There Based On A True Story?

No, Out There is not based on a true story – but it takes inspiration from the very real and pertinent issue of county lines in the UK. ‘We researched the whole county lines problem with Marc [Evans, director] and Ed [Whitmore, writer],’ shares Clunes. ‘While this is a work of fiction the way that business model works is represented accurately because the research was so thorough.

‘I was shocked by certain things,’ Clunes adds. ‘Shocked by the stabbing. There is a story of stabbing every day in the news, and that callous approach to life, the way these kids are used as a disposable workforce… You can see the rank system, and the way they can rise up the ranks. It’s a very well thought out, nasty business.’

‘I am a city boy but I do have relatives who live in the country,’ shares director, co-writer and executive producer of the series, Evans. ‘And I was hearing about how the countryside is struggling a bit. I picked up on a few things they said, and having worked on the true crime genre recently I got very interested in the county lines problem and how it was affecting small towns in Britain.

‘A lot of dramas are set in the city, and I thought it would be interesting to bring those two things together and think about how county lines can be made accessible,’ he adds. ‘If you look at county lines through the urban lens you are really talking about gangs on estates who are running the drug business out of inner city Britain. But if you look at it from the other end of the telescope in these small towns where the people are victims of county lines you realise, the more you read about it, how it affects ordinary people who may be up to that point have had no contact with drugs.’

Louis Ashbourne Serkis as Johnny in Out There. (© Buffalo Pictures/ITV)

What Are County Lines?

‘County lines’ is the name given to a particular type of drug trafficking in the UK: city drug dealers looking to sell drugs to users in smaller towns, more rural areas or otherwise outside of their own patch establish networks of people who carry, store and sell the drugs on their behalf. These people are typically young and/or vulnerable individuals who are coerced into the practice with threats of violence and debt bondage. In 2019, London mayor Sadiq Khan revealed more than 4,000 children and young people had been found to have links to county lines activities in London alone.

‘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,’ shares Ed Whitmore, who created and wrote Out There. ‘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.’

‘There are thousands and thousands of young teenagers involved [in county lines] a year, and many of them end up dead,’ adds Ashbourn Serkis, who plays Johnny, the grieving naive teen drawn into the underworld. ‘Definitely my reaction [to researching this] was shock, and quite scared, but also empathetic to those who are completely helpless and are not aware that they are victims of county lines trafficking, and how common that is and how desperate people can be, and just how cruel the world is. But also it can tear up communities and dominate them. It is hard for smaller communities with often an older population to prevent that happening.’

Michael Obiora as Scott Foley in Out There

The Cast

Martin Clunes as Nathan Williams
Louis Ashbourne Serkis as Johnny Williams
Mark Lewis Jones as Caleb Williams, Nathan’s brother
Natalia Kostrzewa as Eva Bartosz
Carly-Sophia Davies as Sadie Simpson
Gerran Howell as Rhys Simpson
Michael Obiora as Scott Foley
Jack Parry-Jones as DCI Neil Anderson
Michael Elwyn as Owen
Sharon Morgan as Gwen Thomas
Josef Altin as Kenny
Eiry Thomas as PC Jane Crowther

Out There Episodes Schedule

Out There will kick off on ITV1 at 9pm on Sunday 19 January 2025. Episode 2 will follow at the same time the following evening, with the remaining four episodes expected to air on Sunday and Monday evenings. The full release schedule is as follows: