Posted in: BBC, TV | Tagged: bbc, christopher walken, comedy, stephen merchant, The outlaws

The Outlaws Star Christopher Walken Destroys Banksy Art – Seriously

The Outlaws is a shaggy dog comedy series on the BBC in the UK about a bunch group of characters who have nothing in common but have to serve community service sentences together and of course, they can't stand each other. Then they discover a bag full of stolen money and they have to figure out how to hide it together. The series was created and written by longtime Ricky Gervais collaborator Stephen Merchant who also stars in it with Rhianne Barreto, Darren Boyd, Gamba Cole, Eleanor Tomlinson, Jessica Gunning, Clare Perkins, Aiyana Goodfellow, Ian McElhinney, Nina Wadia, Dolly Wells… and Christopher Walken!

And in this week's episode, the Series 1 finale, Walken painted over a real-life original piece of Banksy artwork! The man is a legend!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_-6-hYP7Dk 

Walken plays Frank, an older gentleman, whose prime days are behind him, but retaining that Christopher Walken Cool, stuck with doing community service. The episode, which was released on BBC iPlayer, had Frank paint over the drawing of a rat on a wall after his supervisor orders him to do it, assuming it was graffiti and vandalism. The show was shot in Bristol, Banksy's home city, and the painting was a real Banksy piece. Banksy apparently agreed to let them do it.

A spokesperson for the BBC comedy confirmed everything in a statement: "We can confirm that the artwork at the end of The Outlaws was an original Banksy and that Christopher Walken painted over that artwork during the filming of this scene, ultimately destroying it."

The scene comes after a shredded piece of Banksy artwork sold for £18.5 million at auction last month. "Love Is in the Bin" was the remains of the artist's previous piece Girl with Red Balloon, which was sold for £1 million back in 2018.

As we said, Walken is a legend! If you haven't seen him play the ultimate New York 80s gangster in King of New York, you should as soon as possible. Destroying a piece of Banksy art with the artist's consent adds to Walken's mystique as a piece of performance art and cultural dialogue between a legendary actor and a legendary piece of art to comment on the impermanent nature of art and beauty.

The Outlaws is streaming in the UK on the BBC iPlayer. It is not in the US yet.

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