Channel 4 commissions a second series of No Offence

(Image credit: Phil Fisk)

Channel 4 has ordered another series of popular police drama No Offence, created by Shameless writer/producer Paul Abbott.

The first series, which finishes on Channel 4 tonight, stars Joanna Scanlan as outspoken DI Vivienne Deering, Elaine Cassidy as DC Dinah Kowalska and Alexandra Roach as DS Joy Freers.

Piers Wenger, Channel 4's Head of Drama, 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 laughs this year and we can’t wait to see where they go in series two.”

Joining trio for series two will be the Friday Street station regulars, featuring an ensemble cast of Will Mellor, Paul Ritter, Colin Salmon, Ste Johnston, Tom Varey, Neet Mohan, Saira Choudhry and Charlie May-Clark.

The new series of No Offence will see the team investigating a new case involving warring crime families in which Deering comes 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!

Filming starts in Manchester in early 2016.

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.