Out There episode 1 recap: 'Personal effects'

This Out There episode 1 recap contains spoilers... Martin Clunes will certainly need his shotgun when he's dragged into a dark and sinister world of county lines drug dealing, in this six-part drama from ITV.

The Doc Martin star plays Nathan Williams, a man grieving the death of his wife two years ago, who's now a single parent to teenager Johnny (Louis Ashbourne Serkis). Yet when his son and his livelihood are threatened by a group ruthless outlaws, he finds himself embarking on a mission to protect his family, his homestead and his legacy.

Here's how the first episode of this drama from writer and director duo Ed Whitmore and Marc Evans — the team behind Clunes' hit thriller, Manhunt — went down...

'He’s locked himself in the barn...' 

Nathan Williams is working on his farm when he notices a drone hovering overhead. He follows it and fires his shotgun at it, before it disappears over the horizon. Later that afternoon, he takes his 15 year-old son Johnny to test drive a new tractor and is told to turn back when he tries to take a shortcut through land that once belonged to Bill Turner, who sold his farm to a "storage company’" We reckon we might see the two blokes who turn him back again later in the series.

He then drives past The Palisades, where his brother Caleb works. “Is it true he killed a man with a bayonet in Iraq?” asks Johnny, giving us an instant bit of context on this character.

After dropping Johnny at home, Nathan heads round to help his friend Owen Thomas (Michael Elwynn), who's wondering if he should sell his farm to a storage company, like Bill Turner did, before the pair discuss the issues facing farmers and rural folks. ”I hope you threw the offer in the bin?” says Nathan, but it’s clear Owen didn’t.

When he gets home, Nathan finds his son talking to Scott Foley (Michael Obiora), who wants to rent a barn. “I stopped renting it out about two years ago,” says Nathan. “When my wife died.”

Later on, Nathan gets a call from Gwen (Sharon Morgan), Owen’s wife, who says he’s locked himself in his barn. When he gets there he sees his old friend is about to shoot himself and tragically, he’s unable to break the door down quickly enough to stop him.

'Personal effects...'

When he returns to Owen’s farm after fencing off the late farmer’s cows, Nathan sees the police leaving and finds a woman called Eva (Natalia Kostrzewa) hiding inside. She claims she’s Gwen’s cleaner and doesn’t want to be found by the police. We then meet one of Johnny’s friends, Rhys (Gerran Howell), who’s kindly giving him a lift home, before Nathan is rudely interrupted by that drone. Once again he chases it, with no success.

Back at the farm, Rhys asks Johnny to look after something for him. He says "some bloke" asked him to hold on to it for him and it’s just "personal effects". Johnny is reluctant, but ultimately agrees to look after the stranger’s drugs … sorry, "personal effects".

After dropping Johnny off at school, one of his teachers, Mrs Roberts, asks for a moment to discuss the youngster. She says he’s been underperforming, has totally dropped swimming and “isn’t the Johnny she knows.” Nathan suspects his son’s gaming is responsible for all of this.

However when he heads around to Gwen’s now deserted farm to break up a wild party and finds his 15 year-old son among the revellers, he realises his son might have a few other hobbies that are affecting his school work.

Yet as they clear up the mess, Nathan opens up on his early life with his late wife, how they met in Australia and travelled through Asia, and returned home when his father died. While sifting through the rubbish, Nathan also finds a letter from Black Mountain Estates, who trying to buy Gwen’s farm. He’s very anxious about his neighbour selling to them, as their shared borders leave him very vulnerable to "dirty tricks".

'Just a bit of weed...' 

Determined to make sure Gwen doesn’t sell to those people, he resolves to buy her farm from her, yet his bank manager advises him that despite the fact he made a profit in the last two years, his plan is “f****** nuts”.

Later on, we finally meet Nathan’s brother, Caleb (Mark Lewis Jones), and when the pair go for a pint. He seems like an interesting chap.

As he heads home Nathan sees that drone again, yet is pleasantly surprised to find Eva has cooked them dinner. She can’t stay and we think we might know why, because when Johnny heads up to his room, he finds the package Rhys asked him to look after is missing. Did Eva steal it? It certainly looks like she did.

Rhys is furious when he finds out, yet asks Johnny to deliver a bag to a man called Dan who works at The Raglan. “It’s just a bit of weed,” he claims. However, he’s observed by PC Jane Crowther (Eiry Thomas) when he delivers it...