Martin Clunes' 'Out There' Will Be Out in 2025

Martin Clunes will forever be defined by his titular role in Doc Martin as the nebbish, nervous wreck of a doctor who relocates to a small country village after developing a phobia about blood. While he's tried to redefine himself in travelogues like Martin Clunes Islands of the Pacific and Mel Giedroyc & Martin Clunes Explore Britain by the Book, his TV dramas in recent years have been projects like Manhunt crime series where Clunes comes off as desperate attempts at playing against type. The same is true of his latest ITV drama, Out There, where he plays a father desperate to keep his son out of the drug trade.

Clunes plays Nathan Williams, a man driven to violence by the crime gangs that have invaded the British farmlands and are trying to recruit his son, Johnny. Co-star Louis Ashbourne Serkis plays 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.)  

Ashbourne Serkis seems prepared to do his parents proud with his performance in the new thriller series if the footage in the first trailer is anything to go by.

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 and Ashbourne Serkis co-star alongside a 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 in January 2025. 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 mid-2025.