| In the frustratingly short three-episode series, Stephens, 41, plays DI Jack Armstrong. Never one to let a murder inquiry get in the way of his love life or next meal, Jack forms a mismatched crime-fighting team with infinitely professional DI Kate Bishop (Lucy Punch). “My career is totally random,” he booms, as though projecting to a theatre back row. “Generally in TV or film they keep casting you in the same sort of thing so I get put on a horse or whatever but although I love doing stuff like Jane Eyre, it is only part of my make-up. I don’t take myself seriously so it is great to do some comedy and be the buffoon for once. “I have never played anything remotely like Jack before. He has no ego, no ambition and no objectivity about himself. He’s totally immune to criticism. Wouldn’t it be wonderful being like that, drifting through life? His attitude is that if he solves one case, he’ll only be given another one.” The show’s lack of respect for the TV cop canon is music to his ears. “We do endless police dramas, they are done to death,” he sighs. “Then there are American cop shows, all the CSI shows, which are unintentionally hilarious. That stuff just bores me.
“The clichés are relentless; the lone cop who is divorced, has a troubled home life, is the rogue guy who goes out and breaks all the rules. How many times can they reinvent the same thing over and over again? “Having been over in the States for pilot season, you get sent so many of those scripts, it amazes me. I’d much prefer doing this than the real thing.” H E IS, he says “like Jack in that respect, I don’t have any ambition for it,” he says. “Spending your whole time going: ‘Oh God, I want to be in the movies’ is a total waste of time because the movie industry is in a weird place at the moment. It is desperately trying to find itself, [asking] what is our function in the computer age?
“It is tough out there and I don’t want to waste my career sitting around in LA waiting for movies. There is loads of really exciting stuff going on here, especially in theatre. Theatre is going through a really exciting time at the moment and I love doing it. I don’t want to waste any more time in Hollywood.” Stephens is keen to continue his foray into the lighter side of life. “I want to do this for the rest of my career, we had such fun,” he says, “but then I go off and do theatre like Danton’s Death, which is a weird thing to have to go through, I have to say. Being beheaded three nights a week messes with your mind.” Источник
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