Paul Abbott’s darkly comic police drama No Offence starring Joanna Scanlan will return for a second series on Channel 4.
The Shameless creator’s latest drama, which also stars Elaine Cassidy, Alexandra Roach and Will Mellor, launched with 2.5 million viewers last month.
Abbott has described it as a “comedy for a crime-addicted audience who love The Bill. It’s The Bill, tilted”.
Although it has not held onto its overnight audience – its penultimate episode was watched by 1.2 million viewers last week – it was warmly received by critics. The first series ends on Tuesday.
Channel 4 said the consolidated series average, including people who recorded it and watched it in the subsequent seven days, was 2.5 million, 47% up on its slot average.
Filming on the new eight-part series will begin in Manchester in early 2016.
Programme makers said it would “see the team investigating a whole new case, involving warring crime families and will see DI Deering [Scanlan] come up against her toughest adversary yet – a woman who is pretty much her mirror image, in her brains, ingenuity and determination, except she’s on the other side of the law”.
Channel 4’s head of drama, Piers Wenger, said: “No Offence is not just unlike any other cop show on TV, it’s unlike any other show on TV – and we are delighted to announce its return next year.
“Paul and the cast have set the bar high in terms of thrills, spills and belly laughts this year and we can’t wait to see where they go in series two.”
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