You can still have chemistry on screen without getting on with the person. But it just makes your job a lot easier if you don’t have to gird your loins, if that’s not quite the right phrase, every time you’re going to do a scene with that person.

As always, there’s a couple of things in the pipeline – but that pipeline is a strange and ambiguous place.

I think for anybody reading the book they’re going to get an idea in their heads of all those characters, and I think that once that gets fixed, it’s quite hard to shake.

In my experience it’s not essential to get on with the person that you’re acting opposite.

Besides, most of the books I like involve people I could never play in a million years.

No, I’m not a lager lout either. I think you have to be a massive football fan to be a lager lout.

But one of the most fantastic things about Ireland and Dublin is that the pubs are like Paris and the cafe culture. And Dublin, in many ways, is a pub culture.

There’s no one actor in particular that I want to model my career after, except for the people who have been able to keep their career varied and who choose things that interest them. That opportunity is all I really want.

But no, I don’t think I’m particularly drawn to the period roles or the medieval roles.

I knew I wanted to be an actor when I was growing up, really. So when I decided to go to university instead of drama school, it was with the intention of becoming an actor afterwards.

Because I don’t really think of myself as a hunk, to be honest.

Specifically, we talked about making the character of the prince not so charming, at least in the beginning, and I’m playing around with the preconceptions attached to a character. That’s really what intrigued me as well because I thought it would be fun to do it.

In reality, for me every role is completely different.

So to answer your question, I’m not entirely sure how I ended up where I am today, in the sense that nobody in my family is an actor. It just happened by mistake.

Ireland. Great for the spirit – very bad for the body.

I think I can lead a pretty anonymous life, yeah.

I’ve not as yet found one hobby that would absorb me completely when I’m not working, but I have just bought a new apartment and didn’t quite bargain for the amount of effort and time and money that that absorbs.

I think becoming an actor because it’s a ridiculously insecure profession to go into. I feel very comfortable but very lucky. I think any time that you imagine that it’s plain sailing for hereon in, then you’re kidding yourself.

The little song and dance number at the end – that’s me, my voice, howling out. It was a new experience for me. I’ve never sung before and I’ve certainly never sung on screen. I think I sung on stage when I was 13 and for some reason nobody’s asked me to try it again since.

Well, fluffy shirts are, by definition, very comfortable.

You can still have chemistry on screen without getting on with the person. But it just makes your job a lot easier if you don’t have to gird your loins, if that’s not quite the right phrase, every time you’re going to do a scene with that person.

When I got back I found myself being very emotional about the time spent in Rwanda in a way that I hadn’t been able to or allowed myself to be when we were there.