Darren Boyd
- 53 years old
- English
- Actor
Press clippings
BBC Two orders comedy from disability activist Kyla Harris
The BBC has ordered We Might Regret This, an autobiographical comedy from disability activist and filmmaker Kyla Harris, co-starring Sally Phillips and Darren Boyd, and co-written by Harris with her fellow Canadian Shannon 'Lee' Getty.
British Comedy Guide, 22nd June 2023The Outlaws returning to BBC One for Series 3
The Outlaws is returning for a third series on BBC One, the corporation has confirmed. Creator Stephen Merchant says "we found there was so much meat still on the bone and still so much to do with the characters".
British Comedy Guide, 31st March 2023Smack The Pony is NOT returning
Fiona Allen has told British Comedy Guide that contrary to a newspaper report, Smack The Pony is not returning to television.
British Comedy Guide, 9th March 2023Channel 4 pilots sitcom from disability activist Kyla Harris
Channel 4 is piloting a comedy from intersectional filmmaker and disability activist Kyla Harris, which she co-wrote and stars in alongside Sally Phillips and Darren Boyd.
British Comedy Guide, 1st November 2022Apple TV+ recommissions Trying
Apple TV+ has recommissioned its British sitcom success, Trying. The comedy will return for a fourth series next year.
British Comedy Guide, 31st August 2022Trying Series 3, AppleTV+ review
Not much can shut out the world right now, so grab Trying and hold it tight.
Euan Franklin, Culture Whisper, 21st July 2022The Outlaws Series 2 review
Everything Stephen Merchant does is hilarious.
Jack Seale, The Guardian, 5th June 2022The Outlaws, series 2, review
Stephen Merchant's repeat offenders are criminally underrated.
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph, 5th June 2022Stephen Merchant working on a third series of The Outlaws
Stephen Merchant has told US radio that he's working on ideas for a third series of The Outlaws.
British Comedy Guide, 17th May 2022It's not every day you get to see Christopher Walken ambling about a community project in Bristol. What next: Joe Pesci chugging in Birmingham's Bullring? New BBC One six-part dramedy The Outlaws, starring, co-written and directed by Bristolian Stephen Merchant (The Office; Extras; Hello Ladies), certainly hasn't stinted on casting: Dolly Wells, Clare Perkins, Eleanor Tomlinson, Darren Boyd, Gamba Cole, with Claes Bang and Richard E Grant to come. The premise is that seven small-fry lawbreakers are thrown together to renovate a building as community service in Bristol. So far, so aged-up, earthbound Misfits. Rani, "studious Asian good girl" turned shoplifter, played by Rhianne Barreto, observes: "Everyone's a type: rightwing blowhard, leftwing militant, celebutante, shifty old timer." There's also Merchant as a dweeb solicitor, and Jessica Gunning as an officious overseer, who is inevitably reminiscent of Gareth from The Office, with an added soupçon of civic authority.
I'd wondered if Walken's Hollywood star power would swamp things, but in the overstuffed opener his rogue barely gets a look-in. While some jokes worked, others didn't: one about "working harder than a prostitute with two mattresses" was Jeremy Clarkson-worthy (and no, making it come out of Walken's mouth doesn't make it any funnier). When another (unconnected) sex worker theme pops up in the second episode (both are available), it starts feeling borderline creepy.
Merchant has forged his own path since working with Ricky Gervais, but in The Outlaws opener, too many genres are crudely bolted together: comedy, crime, heartwarming drama, a bizarre segue into gangland Top Boy territory. The second episode, though, is a significant (funnier, tighter) improvement. I'll be sticking around, not least for Walken's Transylvanian mini-break of a face incongruously bobbing around the Bristol environs.
Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 31st October 2021