BAFTA: Stephen Merchant talks The Office reboot & season 3 of The Outlaws

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The actor, writer, director and comedian shared his thoughts on the rebooted return of his most famous show. Report by Nelsonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00Stephen Merchant, hello sir, lovely to see you.

00:03Hello sir, how are you?

00:04I'm very well, I'm slightly cooler than I was five minutes ago and I'm grateful for it.

00:07Tell you what, I moved to London about ten years ago and I had one night out where you were standing in front of me in the street

00:13and I was very excited, I didn't say anything, but I thought, oh I've come to London now, there's Stephen Merchant.

00:17Yeah, well it's a good job I wasn't standing in front of you at a concert.

00:20Indeed, that would have been modest of me, I would have been straight back up to Preston.

00:23Yeah, all you'd have heard is Taylor Swift's voice.

00:26That's it, you'd rightly guess that I'd be at a Taylor Swift concert.

00:29That's right, yeah.

00:30Mate, first and foremost, Outlaws, Series 2, on its way.

00:34Series 3.

00:35Series 3?

00:36Series 3 on its way, yes.

00:37Oh my word, how excited are you to kind of get that out there?

00:40I'm very excited, I think it's the best series so far.

00:42Nice.

00:43You know, everyone knows the characters by now, we've really ramped the stakes up, someone shows up with a dead body.

00:47If you haven't got a dead body in Series 3 then you're never having a dead body, are you?

00:50So that's the time to throw it in and it's good, it's very exciting, very thrilling, still funny, I'm very pleased with it.

00:56It feels like that was one of the first shows that I saw you kind of helming, especially we used to know you with Ricky quite a lot,

01:04but when you started helming that it felt like you'd put a lot of those eggs in a basket.

01:08You'd be writing it, you were performing it, it's a lot of pressure to put on yourself,

01:11so to see it have its longevity, especially in this atmosphere where there's so much content out there,

01:16that must be one of the highlights of your career, I guess.

01:19Well, absolutely, and also I was directing as well, some of the episodes, and we filmed it in my hometown of Bristol.

01:24So that was a big thing for me, a sort of homecoming of sorts, first professional I've done in Bristol and that's my hometown.

01:31And so it was just the whole thing, and then having Christopher Walken taking him all the way to Bristol during a pandemic,

01:36that's a scary couple of weeks, you know?

01:40When you've got him there, he's in his 80s, he's just worried, is he going to get the sniffles?

01:44I don't want to be the one that loses Walken on my watch, but luckily he made it through.

01:48Talking about one of the shows, if not the show that really put you on the map back in the day,

01:53The Office, it's coming back again in America.

01:57Makes me wonder, is it ever going to come back again in the UK?

02:01Well, I think the American version's going to be in the world of The Office, but not the same characters and not the same office.

02:07So I think trying to bring something back where it's the exact same people, exact same place,

02:11that's a tough one to do without damaging the memory of the original.

02:15Plus, I don't think we could afford our cast now.

02:18Probably not.

02:19I'm just wondering, if it is set in the same world, could you keep an eye on it as a blueprint to see if that works over there?

02:25Because you could do something over here with a whole new cast, with a whole new area that's just loosely set in the same universe.

02:30Yeah, that's not a bad idea.

02:32We even talked about that as an Outlaws.

02:35Could you do the Outlaws and just suddenly there's one in Manchester and there's one in Liverpool?

02:38You could kind of do that anywhere, really, because it's just about a group of people who've broke the law.

02:44And sadly, lawbreakers everywhere.

02:46And speaking of universes, actually, we're seeing your old mate Logan back in the MCU coming up.

02:53We thought he was a goner. I'm sure you thought he was a goner as well.

02:56But with that kind of new multiverse, characters who are dead coming back, etc., have you been expecting a call any time soon?

03:03Could you give us a little exciting exclusive about what's coming up?

03:08Well, I mean, that goes to show, doesn't it, that just because you kill someone off in something, it doesn't mean anything anymore.

03:12Just because you end the office doesn't mean it can't come back.

03:15You know, nothing's sort of dead in the water anymore.

03:17I haven't had the call for Logan, but I'm happy to shave my head again and spend four hours in make-up to play an albino mutant freak.

03:25I'm waiting for that call.

03:27We would love to see it.

03:28And finally, we're here to celebrate on the Best of British over the last 12 months.

03:31Other than your own fine TV show, has there been anything you were wishing your agent gave you a call about?

03:36Anything you've looked endlessly on or just really binged out on over the last 12 months?

03:40Well, I'm giving an award for the Best Drama this year, and those nominees are all absolutely terrific.

03:45You know, including Slow Horses, the spy drama that I think is terrific.

03:50Top Boy's in there. I'm not quite sure I'd fit into the Top Boy universe.

03:54The toppest boy, I imagine.

03:56Yeah, certainly the tallest boy.

03:57And, yeah, so I think there's been an amazing array of stuff.

04:02And, you know, it just keeps getting better and better.

04:05And I just think, and particularly in this country, I still think we're sort of kings of the world in terms of what we do.

04:09Well, I can't wait to get into Outlaws again.

04:11Mate, it's a pleasure to finally meet you.

04:13I wish I'd tapped you on the shoulder ten years ago.

04:15Then this would have been a lovely full circle moment.

04:17Absolutely.

04:18But have a fantastic afternoon.

04:19Cheers. And you, mate. Thanks so much.

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