Hard nut with a soft centre
Ray Winstone has earned a reputation as the hard man of British cinema but it turns out that in real life he's a bit of a softie.
The 45-year-old actor turned down a lucrative deal and the chance of stardom in America because it would have meant spending a large part of the year on the other side of the Atlantic and away from his family.
He has been married for the past 22 years to Elaine. They have three daughters Lois, 20, Jamie, 16, and one-year-old daughter, Ellie Rae.
The Sexy Beast star says: "I've been offered three films in Hollywood playing the parts of tough guys talking rubbish. But I go where I'm offered a good script and I have been a lucky boy in that respect.
"I have three daughters and if I went to America I would never see them. I had the chance to be in the TV series The Wire. It has a fantastic script with good people - but I didn't go.
"It would have meant seven months in Baltimore for five years. I would have been able to have Ellie Rae with me but I would just not have seen my two elder daughters. So at the end of the day there was no competition. I'm very happy working in this country."
Born in Plaistow in London's East End, Winstone grew up in Enfield, Middlesex. In recent times he has become something of an icon and has found himself in great demand to play gangsters and tough nuts.
He jokes that his distinctive London accent has not always been as popular and it even got him thrown out of the stage school he attended from the age of 18.
"I don't think they liked my accent," he smiles. "I was always getting into trouble, so I sabotaged the headteacher's car by putting tacks under her front tyre. One of the other kids grassed me up and I was asked to go.
"But it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. As I was there to say goodbye to everyone I heard they were having a casting and went in just for a laugh.
"I met this director, Alan Clarke, and he gave me the role of Carlin in Scum - he told me he liked the way I walked down the corridor," he laughs.
Clarke has said it was Winstone's boxer's walk which landed him the part. As a youth he had been a member of an amateur boxing club and became London Schoolboy Champion three times. He fought twice for England but decided he wanted to pursue a career in acting.
After the controversial borstal drama Scum was screened, Winstone was cast as a series of drunks, gangsters and loan sharks. His career reached new heights when he was cast as the wife-beating East End thug in Gary Oldman's Nil By Mouth.
Lenny Blue follows on where the drama Tough Love left off. DC Lenny Milton is trying to come to terms with the murder of his best mate and work colleague Mike Love.
Since the tragedy he has moved to another police station but all of his new colleagues know about Milton informing on his corrupt mate. As a result he is treated like dirt and is at the bottom of the heap.
Although he has moved on, Milton is still having to deal with the same old problems - drugs dealers and gangsters.
Winstone says: "Tough Love was more about two men. It was about the moral dilemmas of their friendship. But Lenny Blue is more about the police force."
He admits he has tried cannabis but he is concerned about the effect drugs are having on today's society.
"Personally I can't smoke cannabis. I tried it and fell over. It's not for me but then I drink vodka and scotch.
"It's the biggest problem in the world today. Countries are paying off national debts through the drugs trade. I guess people could stop it tomorrow if they wanted.
"They keep trying to deal with the problem here but they could stop it where it originally comes from. I don't know whether legalising some drugs is right or wrong.
"I had a mate who was very, very ill and the only way he could stop the pain was to have a joint. So perhaps cannabis should be made legal? But it is a very difficult subject to comment on.
"There is an argument that drug users progress from cannabis to heroin but I'm not a great supporter of that theory. I think it's usually more to do with the circles you knock about in."
Winstone enjoyed playing the down-at-heel detective again and he may soon be back on TV as a popular detective from the 70s - the lovable rogue Hazell, who was created by Terry Venables and originally played by Nicholas Ball.
"I like Terry Venables' writing. These days there aren't many people who write good dialogue. I told him I would like to play the part if we could get the project off the ground."
And Winstone is looking forward to playing tyrannical King Henry VIII early next year.
"I'll have to sit down to talk with the production people on how I'm going to play him," he says.
"He was the King of England and I'm from Plaistow. But I think that is where Anne Boleyn lived," he jokes.
(Lenny Blue is on ITV1 on Monday, July 1 and Tuesday, July 2.)
