The Wrong Mans is a British comedy drama television series, produced by BBC Television and Hulu. It premiered on BBC Two on 24 September 2013 and in the United States on 11 November 2013.^[1][2] Considered a critical and ratings success, it was co-created and written by Gavin & Stacey 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.^[3]

In 2018, it was announced that an American remake of the show was being produced for Showtime by J. J. Abrams's Bad Robot and BBC Studios. However, the pilot was later cancelled by Showtime.^[4][5][6]

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.

• Mathew Baynton as Samuel James Pinkett
• James Corden as Philip Neville Bourne
• Sarah Solemani as Lizzie Green
• Tom Basden as Noel Ward
• Paul Cawley as Alan
• Chandeep Uppal as Sabrina
• Dawn French as Linda Bourne
• Nick Moran as Nick Stevens
• Emilia Fox as Scarlett Stevens
• David Calder as Mr. Reid
• Benedict Wong as Mr Lau
• Andrew Koji as Jason Lau
• Christina Chong as May Wu
• Dougray Scott as Agent Jack Walker
• Stephen Campbell Moore as Paul Smoke
• Karel Roden as Marat Malankovic
• Duncan Pow as Petr
• Alec Utgoff as Yuri & Dimitri
• Rebecca Front as Cox
• Rowena King as Wood
• Ray Panthaki as Khalil (Series 2)
• Anastasia Griffith as Agent Miller (Series 2)
• Bertie Carvel as Nathan Cross (Series 2)
• Raoul Trujillo as Carlos Espinoza (Series 2)
• John Ross Bowie as Dave Kinsman (Series 2)
• Samantha Spiro as Maria (Series 2)
• Rosa Whitcher as Rosa (Series 2)
• Trevor Cooper as Guard Harry (Series 2)

On 9 October 2012, BBC Two controller Janice Hadlow announced The Wrong Mans as a co-production between BBC In-House Comedy and Hulu.^[7] The series was commissioned by Janice Hadlow and Cheryl Taylor.^[7] 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.^[8] Principal filming on the series began in January 2013, at the same time as the cast was announced.^[7][9] Jeremy Dyson was the script editor for the series.^[7]

The idea for the series initially arose out of a conversation between Corden and Baynton on the set of Gavin & Stacey, four years earlier,^[7] regarding the apparent scarcity of TV sitcoms with the same level of intricate, meaningful plotting as then-current dramatic hits 24 and Lost.^[10] As a starting-point for their own half-hour comedy show pitch to the BBC, the duo were further inspired by the Coen Brothers' film Burn After Reading, with its central concept of ordinary characters obviously out of their depth in a standard action-movie scenario.^[11] 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.^[8]

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.^[11] Producer/director Jim Field Smith described the result as a "movie broken into six parts",^[12] and in filming aimed for a likewise ambitious fusion of the realistic and cinematic, insisting that the thriller elements be played entirely straight.^[8]

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."^[10]

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".^[13] Immediately post-finale, both co-creators and Field Smith confirmed their interest in returning, on Twitter and during media appearances.^[14][15] 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.^[16] In February 2014, Baynton said that he and Corden had finished plotting the new series and were about to start work on the scripts.^[17] In April 2014, BBC Two officially announced that a second series had been commissioned.^[18]

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.^[19] 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.^[20][21]

DVD and Blu-ray Disc editions of the first series were released in the UK on 4 November 2013.^[50] The second series was released onto DVD in the UK on 26 January 2015.^[51]

A boxset containing the first and second series of The Wrong Mans was also released in the UK on 26 January 2015.^[52]