A Confession

You could be forgiven for thinking that Jeff Pope was obsessed by the macabre. Why else would he be drawn to such odious topics as the Moors murders, serial killer Fred West or Britain’s last hangman, Albert Pierrepoint?

He puts it like this: “If drama is about conflict, which it is, you’re looking for the extremes of conflict. Those areas are love, fate and, I would argue, crime.

“I am not a depressive person or ghoulish but it’s the old journalist in me: there’s a good story in it.”

Speaking to the RTS he said: “It meant that people came to me with their ideas. Steve Coogan came to me with Philomena (Coogan and Pope’s screenplay was nominated for an Oscar and won best screenplay at the Venice Film Festival).

“Success gets you meetings, but it still doesn’t get something past the finishing line if it’s not good enough…It also means you can be more ambitious and more expansive.”

Although he assures me he’s “too old to play Tim [again]”, you can see the similarities he shares with his famous character.

He is affable and self-deprecating, joking that he thinks the real Steve Fulcher, who he plays in upcoming ITV drama A Confession, was happy for him to play him - although might have wished for “someone taller, maybe?”

With more than 80 film and TV credits to his name, Freeman has starred in everything from cult classic TV series to huge blockbuster franchises.