The Wrong Mans (British TV series)
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''The Wrong Mans'' is a British BBC Television comedy-drama series, co-produced with the American online television provider Hulu. It premiered on BBC Two on 24 September 2013 and in the United States on 11 November 2013. Considered a critical and ratings success, it was co-created and written by ''
Gavin & Stacey ''Gavin & Stacey'' is a British sitcom written by James Corden and Ruth Jones about two families: one in Billericay, Essex; one in Barry, South Wales. Mathew Horne and Joanna Page play the titular characters Gavin and Stacey and the writers ...
'' alumni James Corden and Mathew Baynton as an attempt to combine the situation comedy format with the intricate plotting and storytelling tropes of an action-adventure series. A two-part sequel series aired on BBC Two in the runup to Christmas 2014, with Hulu broadcasting the same series in four parts on Christmas Eve. In 2018, it was announced that an American remake of the show was being produced for Showtime by
J. J. Abrams Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as '' Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' F ...
's
Bad Robot Bad Robot is an American film and television production company founded on May 27, 1999 and led by J. J. Abrams and Katie McGrath as Co-CEO. Under its Bad Robot Productions division, the company is responsible for the television series ''Alias' ...
and
BBC Studios BBC Studios is a British content company. It is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that was formed in April 2018 through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Worldwide. ...
. However, the pilot was later cancelled by Showtime.


Premise

Berkshire County Council worker Sam Pinkett and Phil Bourne, who doesn't work for the council but works inside the building, become entangled in a far-fetched web of crime, conspiracy and corruption after Sam answers a ringing mobile phone at the site of a car crash.


Cast

* Mathew Baynton as Samuel James Pinkett * James Corden as Philip Neville Bourne * Sarah Solemani as Lizzie Green *
Tom Basden Thomas William Basden (born 30 November 1980) is an English actor, comedy writer, and a member of the British four-man sketch group Cowards. He has written and performed extensively for comedy shows on the BBC and Channel 4 and often collabo ...
as Noel Ward * Paul Cawley as Alan * Chandeep Uppal as Sabrina * Dawn French as Linda Bourne *
Nick Moran Nick Moran (born 23 December 1968 or 1969, sources differ) is an English actor and filmmaker, best known for his role as Eddie the card sharp in ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels''. He appeared as Scabior in ''Harry Potter and the Deathly H ...
as Nick Stevens *
Emilia Fox Emilia Rose Elizabeth Fox (born 31 July 1974) is an English actress and presenter whose film debut was in Roman Polanski's film '' The Pianist''. Her other films include the Italian–French–British romance-drama film '' The Soul Keeper'' (2 ...
as Scarlett Stevens * David Calder as Mr. Reid *
Benedict Wong Benedict Wong (born 3 July 1971) is an English actor. He is known for his roles as Kublai Khan in Netflix's ''Marco Polo'' (2014–2016), Bruce Ng in '' The Martian'' (2015), and Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since ''Doctor Strange'' (2 ...
as Mr Lau * Andrew Koji as Jason Lau * Christina Chong as May Wu *
Dougray Scott Stephen Dougray Scott (born 25 November 1965) is a Scottish actor. He has appeared in the films ''Ever After'' (1998), '' Mission: Impossible 2'' (2000), ''Enigma'' (2001), ''Hitman'' (2007), and ''My Week with Marilyn'' (2011). Early life Sc ...
as Agent Jack Walker *
Stephen Campbell Moore Stephen Campbell Moore (born Stephen Moore Thorpe, 30 November 1979) is a British actor. He is best known for his roles in Alan Bennett's play '' The History Boys'' and the film based on it. Since 2019, he has starred in the sci-fi television ...
as Paul Smoke *
Karel Roden Karel Roden (born 18 May 1962) is a Czech actor, popularly known for his roles in ''Hellboy'' and ''The Bourne Supremacy'', and his voice work in '' Grand Theft Auto IV''. Life and career Roden followed his father and grandfather into acting. ...
as Marat Malankovic *
Duncan Pow Duncan Pow (born October 8 1977) is a Scottish actor. He is known in the United Kingdom for television roles in the Sky 1 series ''Dream Team'', and the BBC One series '' Holby City''. He is known internationally for his role in the '' Star Wa ...
as Petr * Alec Utgoff as Yuri & Dimitri *
Rebecca Front Rebecca Louise Front (born 16 May 1964) is an English actress, writer and comedian. She won the 2010 BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for '' The Thick of It'' (2009–2012).Jennifer Lipma"Bafta for Jewish actress Rebecca Front" ...
as Cox * Rowena King as Wood * Ray Panthaki as Khalil (Series 2) * Anastasia Griffith as Agent Miller (Series 2) *
Bertie Carvel Robert Hugh Carvel (born 6 September 1977) is a British actor. He has twice won a Laurence Olivier Award: for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his role as Miss Trunchbull in '' Matilda the Musical'', and for Best Actor in a Suppo ...
as Nathan Cross (Series 2) * Raoul Trujillo as Carlos Espinoza (Series 2) *
John Ross Bowie John Ross Bowie (born May 30, 1971) is an American actor and comedian best known for playing Barry Kripke on ''The Big Bang Theory'' and Jimmy DiMeo on '' Speechless,'' in addition to over 100 film and TV credits. He is of no known relation to s ...
as Dave Kinsman (Series 2) *
Samantha Spiro Samantha Spiro (born 20 June 1968) is an English actress and singer. She is best known for portraying Barbara Windsor in the stage play '' Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick'' and the television films ''Cor, Blimey!'' and ''Babs'', DI Vivien F ...
as Maria (Series 2) * Rosa Whitcher as Rosa (Series 2) * Trevor Cooper as Guard Harry (Series 2)


Production

On 9 October 2012, BBC Two controller
Janice Hadlow Janice Vivienne Hadlow (born November 1957) in Lewisham is a former BBC television executive. She was the controller of the BBC television channel BBC Two, taking over this position in November 2008 having previously been controller of BBC Four. A ...
announced ''The Wrong Mans'' as a co-production between
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
In-House Comedy and Hulu. The series was commissioned by Janice Hadlow and Cheryl Taylor. A pilot based on Baynton and Corden's initial series pitch had previously been shot in 2010; some elements were retained for what eventually became the first episode of the full series, including a cameo from
David Harewood David Harewood MBE (born 8 December 1965) is a British actor and presenter. He is best known for his roles as CIA Counterterrorism Director David Estes in ''Homeland'' (2011–2012), and as J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter and Hank Henshaw / ...
. Principal filming on the series began in January 2013, at the same time as the cast was announced.
Jeremy Dyson Jeremy Dyson (born 14 June 1966) is a British author, musician and screenwriter who, along with Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, is one of the League of Gentlemen. He also created and co-wrote the West End show ''Ghost Stories ...
was the script editor for the series. The idea for the series initially arose out of a conversation between Corden and Baynton on the set of ''
Gavin & Stacey ''Gavin & Stacey'' is a British sitcom written by James Corden and Ruth Jones about two families: one in Billericay, Essex; one in Barry, South Wales. Mathew Horne and Joanna Page play the titular characters Gavin and Stacey and the writers ...
'', four years earlier, regarding the apparent scarcity of TV sitcoms with the same level of intricate, meaningful plotting as then-current dramatic hits '' 24'' and '' Lost''. As a starting-point for their own half-hour comedy show pitch to the BBC, the duo were further inspired by the
Coen Brothers Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...
' film ''
Burn After Reading ''Burn After Reading'' is a 2008 black comedy spy film written, produced, edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It follows a recently jobless CIA analyst, Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) whose misplaced memoirs are found by a pair of dimwitte ...
'', with its central concept of ordinary characters obviously out of their depth in a standard action-movie scenario. The humour in their new TV series, Baynton and Corden decided, would arise not so much from deliberate jokes as from the sheer realistic ineptitude of the heroes' attempts to cope with a high-stakes melodrama constantly snowballing further out of their control. Once they began actually writing the series, the two quickly realised this would mean carrying through a much more ambitious project than they had anticipated, eventually leading to a significant amount of effort spent attempting to work out a believably complex, well-paced thriller plot. Producer/director
Jim Field Smith Jim Field Smith (born 20 February 1979) is an English film and television director, writer and producer. Early career Smith was a member of the British sketch comedy group Dutch Elm Conservatoire, who were nominated for the prestigious Perrier A ...
described the result as a "movie broken into six parts", and in filming aimed for a likewise ambitious fusion of the realistic and cinematic, insisting that the thriller elements be played entirely straight. Regarding the apparently awkward title, Corden explained that the extra and ungrammatical "s" was deliberately placed "to let you know it's a comedy show. If it was a drama, it'd be called The Wrong Man." Despite the first series' apparently self-contained storyline, as of the midpoint of its initial airing, BBC executives had already confirmed that "there is a desire to bring it back and discussions are ongoing". Immediately post-finale, both co-creators and Field Smith confirmed their interest in returning, on Twitter and during media appearances. Baynton said in an interview shortly thereafter that they had come up with what they thought was a plausible way to continue the same duo's adventures for a second series. In February 2014, Baynton said that he and Corden had finished plotting the new series and were about to start work on the scripts. In April 2014, BBC Two officially announced that a second series had been commissioned. Filming began on the new series in August 2014, with Field Smith returning as producer/director. The new plotline was conceived as a direct continuation of the events of the first, using a deliberately hanging plot thread—the bomb seen planted under a car in the final shot—as the starting-point in a storyline that charted the duo's equally outlandish attempts to reclaim their ordinary lives. Describing their efforts in comparison to the original, Corden and Baynton reiterated that "this new series is bigger and bolder... If series one was the frying pan, this is the fire." Other returning cast members include Dawn French, Rebecca Front, Sarah Solemani and Tom Basden, all reprising their roles from the first series. BBC Two scheduled the new series as part of their 2014 Christmas programming line-up, running the episodes in two hour-long blocks successively on 22 and 23 December. The same episodes broken into four half-hours subsequently premiered on Hulu.com on 24 December.


Episode list


Series 1 (2013)


Series 2 (2014)


Reception


Ratings

Overnight figures showed that the first episode was watched by 13.5% of the UK viewing audience at the time, or 3.08 million, making it BBC Two's most successful comedy debut since '' Extras'' eight years previously. Consolidated audience was 4.5 million, or 16%. Series consolidated viewing average was 3.3 million viewers or 12%, while the Sunday 10pm repeat averaged 494,000/2%. In the US, Hulu initially launched the series by making either the first two episodes available to regular subscribers with one episode subsequently released each week, or all six immediately available to Hulu Plus subscribers. CEO Mike Hopkins confirmed that each episode ranked among the ten most-watched on the online service upon weekly release.


Critical response

Initial UK reviews for the series were generally positive. It was ranked No. 5 in '' Radio Times annual critics' Top 40 TV series for 2013 and the first episode was an iTunes UK Editor's Choice as the same year's Best TV Episode. On making its Hulu debut, the show received an aggregate score of 80/100 from
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
based on seven major reviews, placing it in the top ten highest-rated series of the US fall season. Praise for the "darkly comic caper", as Keith Watson described it for '' Metro'', centred around both the moody, heavily stylised visual feel of the overall production and the contrasting comic chemistry between its two leads. "The mismatched buddy dynamic between the pair – nerdy, neurotic everyman and chubby gung-ho sidekick – was reminiscent of the
Simon Pegg Simon John Pegg (né Beckingham; born 14 February 1970) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He came to prominence in the UK as the co-creator of the Channel 4 sitcom ''Spaced'' (1999–2001), directed by Edgar Wright. H ...
/
Nick Frost Nicholas Jonathan Frost (born 28 March 1972) is a British actor, author, comedian, painter, producer and screenwriter. He has appeared in the ''Three Flavours Cornetto'' trilogy of films, consisting of ''Shaun of the Dead'' (2004), ''Hot Fuzz ...
Britcoms or a
Coen Brothers Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...
flick," wrote Michael Hogan in ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
''. Ellen Jones from ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' said: "Thanks to slick direction and, one suspects, a large chunk of the BBC's autumn budget, it certainly looks as good as a Hollywood thriller." Veteran TV writer Clive James of ''The Daily Telegraph'' said ''The Wrong Mans'' is "highly recognisable, as if it had been designed to fulfill all the requirements of British screen comedy... Remember Morecambe and Wise on the Riviera? This is the same thing, but better done. Having watched one episode, I vowed to watch another: instead of, as I usually do when a British comedy series is concerned, vowing to emigrate back to Australia." Writing for the entertainment website HitFix, American veteran reviewer
Alan Sepinwall Alan Sepinwall (born October 19, 1973) is an American television reviewer and writer. He spent 14 years as a columnist with ''The Star-Ledger'' in Newark until leaving the newspaper in 2010 to work for the entertainment news website HitFix. He ...
noted that "I expected to be tired of the joke behind "The Wrong Mans" within an episode or two. Instead, I found myself engrossed enough in the story of who wanted Sam dead at any particular moment, and why, to keep watching until I made it all the way to the end and could appreciate just how well Baynton, Corden and company stuck the landing." Several reviewers nevertheless felt the show's attempt to seamlessly mesh the comedy and thriller genres wasn't entirely successful, including
Rachel Cooke Rachel Cooke (born 1969) is a British journalist and writer. Early life Cooke was born in Sheffield, and is the daughter of a university lecturer. She went to school in Jaffa, Israel, until she was 11, before returning to Sheffield, and atten ...
in the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
'', who wrote that "I didn’t hate it... but all the same, I’m not sure that it quite works. Thirty minutes seems too short a time to accommodate both the tropes of a thriller and a tonne of jokes. I think they should have given themselves an hour, the better that the audience might get its ear in.". Sam Wollaston in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' wrote that he was "not convinced" by the series' tone, "nor that performers (mainly) necessarily make the best writers. Oh, and what's with that title? There's something wrong with it, isn't there? Grammatically?"


Awards and nominations

Baynton and Corden, with Tom Basden, won a 2014 Royal Television Society (RTS) Programme Award for Best Writer – Comedy. Baynton and Corden also received a BAFTA TV Craft Award nomination in the same category, and both were also nominated for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Programme in the same year's BAFTA Television Awards. At the 2015 BAFTA TV Awards, the show received a nomination in the Best Scripted Comedy category.


Home media

DVD and Blu-ray Disc editions of the first series were released in the UK on 4 November 2013. The second series was released onto DVD in the UK on 26 January 2015. A boxset containing the first and second series of ''The Wrong Mans'' was also released in the UK on 26 January 2015.


References


External links

* *
''The Wrong Mans''
at Radio Times *
''The Wrong Mans''
at Hulu
Behind the scenes pictures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrong Mans, The 2013 British television series debuts 2014 British television series endings 2010s British comedy-drama television series British comedy-drama television shows English-language television shows Television shows set in Berkshire BBC television comedy BBC television dramas Hulu original programming Television series by BBC Studios