The Young Offenders return for a third series
The hit Irish comedy The Young Offenders from producers Vico Films will return on RTÉ2 and BBC Three for a third series in the new year. Created by Peter Foott, The Young Offenders tells the coming of age adventures of Conor (Alex Murphy) and Jock (Chris Walley) and their mother/guardian Mairead (Hilary Rose) as she tries to keep them on the straight and narrow. The best friends navigate their awkward teenage years, hatching plans and adventures to help distract from their tough home lives and their inability to stay out of trouble.
Episode one of The Young Offenders on RTÉ2 had an average consolidated audience of 487,400* and achieved an average share of 29%**. It proved particularly popular with younger audiences reaching 46% of adults 15-34. RTÉ Player has had an additional 258,000 streams since the programme aired.
The whole second series launched as a BBC iPlayer box-set earlier this month and has picked up an amazing 4.1 million requests so far. Combined with the 13.5 million for series one and last year’s Christmas special, that over 17.6 million requests to date in the UK.
Speaking about the announcement Justin Healy, Executive Producer for RTÉ Comedy said; “We’re delighted to be bringing The Young Offenders back for a third season. Supporting Irish talent in front of and behind the camera is a key priority for us, with more and more of our comedy content reaching international audiences. The Young Offenders and the antics of Conor and Jock have gone from strength to strength, becoming unmissable television and proving that warm, hearty Irish comedy has a broad appeal internationally.”
Kate Daughton, Head of BBC Comedy said “The Young Offenders is spit-your-tea out funny and heartbreakingly emotional. A rare combination that’s testament to the talents and passion of a very special cast, crew and writing team, led by creator and show-runner Peter Foott. We can’t wait to share series 3 – Cork’s finest have never looked finer.”
Fiona Campbell, Controller BBC Three said “At BBC Three, we love championing local voices and The Young Offenders are a brilliant success story for us. With great characters and on point writing that is hugely relatable to our audience, we’re delighted they’re coming back for another series.”
Peter Foott, creator of The Young Offenders, said “We are so grateful to RTÉ and BBC Three and are thrilled that they had such faith in the stories and characters of The Young Offenders that they commissioned a third series from us. We had a lot of fun filming series two and three back to back over the summer in Cork, and we can’t wait for everyone to see more of Conor, Jock, Mairead and all the characters next year in our third series. We’ve been really amazed at the huge reaction to series two so far, and we’re so happy that we can officially announce that there’s more on the way for fans of the show.”
The Young Offenders has been commissioned for BBC Three by Fiona Campbell, Controller of BBC Three and Shane Allen, Controller, BBC Comedy Commissioning. The Commissioner for the BBC is Alex Moody. The Executive Producer for Vico Films is Peter Foott, the Producer is Tim Whitby. The show is produced in association with RTÉ.
The Young Offenders series two continues on Monday nights on RTÉ2, BBC One and is available on BBC Three & BBC iPlayer in the UK.
