Martin Clunes Is a Single Father in 'Out There's First Images
Martin Clunes and Louis Ashbourne Serkis as Nathan and Johnny Williams in 'Out There'
ITV
ITV has released the first images from the newest Martin Clunes thriller, Out There, which is coming to the U.K. network in time for the 2024 Holidays. Like the BBC, which commissions Christmas-themed episodes from its most popular series like Doctor Who, and high-profile specials like its yearly Agatha Christie miniseries, ITV brings out the big titles for the period between December 21, 2024, and January 5, 2025, when viewers are most likely to be home and turn on the TV. The network already announced that Vera's final season and behind-the-scenes special will be a highlight of the holidays, and now it confirms Martin Clunes will also be part of the package.
Clunes' newest headline role is the lead-off series in ITV's "Christmas Brochure," which lists all the debuts heading to ITV and ITVX in time for the winter holidays. That placement, including the front and center Out There key art featured, should give viewers an idea of how dependable the actor is in bringing in the eyeballs.
The new series is a far cry from his well-known Doc Martin role. Since Christmas is the traditional time for horror and thrillers in the U.K., this is no cozy medical crime drama. Instead, Clunes plays a farmer, Nathan Williams, a single father to a teenage son, Johnny, since his wife passed, who finds that the problems once confined to urban areas (drugs, murder, gangs) have now found their way to rural communities like his.
Martin Clunes and Louis Ashbourne Serkis as Nathan and Johnny Williams in 'Out There'
ITV
Here's the series synopsis:
County lines drug-dealing and an escalating and insidious crime wave sweeping the British countryside are the subject of this drama starring Martin Clunes as a farmer confronted with dark forces seeping into his rural community. The drama will depict the stealthy and surreptitious invasion of the land our farmer cherishes with devastating consequences as his livelihood, homestead, and family life are threatened by local county lines drug dealers who are essentially urban gangs using the British countryside as a field of operations and moving drugs and money between their inner-city hubs and provincial areas.
Clunes co-stars with Louis Ashbourne Serkis as his son Johnny. (Yes, that last name is because he's the son of Andy Serkis and Lorraine Ashbourne; the two have been married for decades and have three adult children, two of whom are in the business. Their daughter, Ruby, was recently in Shardlake.) The series also features a supporting cast that includes Mark Lewis Jones (Outlander), Natalia Kostrzewa (Line of Duty), Carly-Sophia Davies (Midsomer Murders), Gerran Howell (Suspicion), Michael Obiora (Sexy Beast), and Jack Parry-Jones (Hijack).
Ed Whitmore and Marc Evans, who wrote and directed Clune's last thriller, Manhunt, reunite with him on Out There. Whitmore will pen all episodes, and Evans will share helming duties with Philippa Langdale. The series is executive produced by Philippa Braithwaite and Evie Bergson-Korn for Buffalo Pictures.
Out There will debut on ITV and ITVX before the end of the 2024 holidays. The series has not confirmed an American distributor. However, as most of Clunes' drama has wound up on Acorn TV and/or AMC+, it's a likely bet it will turn up somewhere among the AMC Networks federation of niche streamers in early 2025.
