What was it like to suffer the beatings as Harry Venn in Hidden rather than doling them out as DCI Gene Hunt?
It was a bit confusing being the other side of the table, but also quite nice to flip the coin and do something different.
A lot of people didn't have a clue what was going on in Hidden, were you equally baffled?
Oh yeah, absolutely. It was like working your way through a tough Sudoku, but that's why it was worth doing.
Do you ever watch Life on Mars and reminisce?
When I was filming Mad Dogs with John Simm in Mallorca last summer I took a couple of DVDs out with me for a laugh. We had one night when we sat in my hotel room with a bottle of wine and stuck one on.
What's your favourite moment from the programme?
The scene when we're in the back of a surveillance van and Marshall Lancaster's character, DC Chris Skelton, does this huge fart and I say, 'What've you been eating? Pedigree bloody Chum or something?'
Your brother Robert is in Noises Off at the moment and your niece Emily has just started out as an actress; will the Glenisters be eclipsing the Fox acting dynasty soon?
I don't think of it as a dynasty. At the end of the day it's the job one does. I actually say to my daughter, 'If you want to act and make some money, get yourself down to the Old Bailey and stick a wig on.'
You recently filmed Bel Ami with Uma Thurman and Kristin Scott Thomas, what's your part?
I play a Parisian sub-editor married to Uma Thurman (or 'The Thermanator' as she was known on set - she has a very powerful presence and she's taller than me), then that ugly geezer Robert Pattinson turns up and shags everything that moves. Apart from me, thank goodness.
You've been spotted having a pint with the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock in the House of Commons, do you go there often?
Yes, it's my local. Actually I was there for a reception for the performing arts union Equity. I'd met Neil before on the set of Cranford and he's a good laugh so we had a pint.
Did you talk politics?
We might have, but that will remain private.
You play a lot of golf, have you ever had a hole in one?
Never but I've come very close so maybe I'm due. You have to buy a round of drinks when you do so at least I've saved a few quid.
Hidden is out now on DVD
