Interview with Will Mellor for No Offence Series 2

5 December 2016

No Offence is different. This season, we go on a complete right angle and it’s a completely new adventure.

Spike’s still got a bit of a hangover as to what happened to Deering and her husband – he’s loyal and cares a lot for the team. He has an emotional backbone and he takes a lot of these cases home and to his heart.

Especially this series, with the young killer Kim Garvey (Zak Sutcliffe) we delve into Spike’s past and where he comes from. When I read it, I was over the moon. It’s really nice to have a storyline which is more personally emotional for Spike, as well as following the case - and not just Spike the detective.

Spike’s got a real heart. He’s had quite a shady past and because of that, he always wants to give people a chance. Part of his cop job is saving people. Especially with this Kim Garvey kid, seeing him throwing his life away for the people he’s working for. Spike tries a way of engaging and getting through to the boy. To break through this hard core exterior, to say you still have got a life to live. Without giving too much away, I think Spike sees a lot of himself in Kim.

Hopefully my kids’ are far away from anything like Kim. I’m just playing Spike in a real situation and he’s seeing a scared kid in Kim. And I think once I knew that was coming, it helped me play all the emotions as a parent. You’ll start off shouting and then you’ll try the soft approach. You just try different approaches and through the episodes Spike ultimately tells Kim about himself – you’ve got to give a bit to take a bit back….

Rakie [Ayola – Nora] is a genius of an actress and I think the character is great with all her family and Sarah Solemani (Lickberg) was fantastic for Friday Street. We all get on so well and we have a really good time. I just want the show to be the best it can be. We’re all protective of this thing we are involved in – I mean we’re all in it together.

The only thing I care about is the end product and this season I think Paul [Abbott] nearly gave him self brain damage working on this so hard! Only Paul thinks and writes the way he does. Exciting and dangerous and you don’t always want to be safe. There’s too many cop shows going right down that middle lane. I like going left through the fields where no one else is, because that’s where you’re on the edge. Certain decisions I make, I like living on the edge.

I like to do things that are exciting and a bit different. No Offence was a new genre where you’ve got moments where you can laugh and the next minute you are pulling a Down’s syndrome girl out of the river. If I were to read that, it’s seriously clashing. But when the scenes play out, with everything from the actors to seeing the way it was shot, to the music – I said to my wife and my mum when I watched it: “this would have been the show that if I had been watching, I’d be asking them ‘why wasn’t I in it? I’d be straight on to my agent saying why wasn’t in it?!”…. so I’m chuffed to be in it!