Ian McShane is undoubtedly best known for his title role as the rogue antique dealer in Lovejoy, the lovable lothario whom he played for six years. This has been a bit of a mixed blessing for Ian, as he gets recognised everywhere he goes, even though he deliberately took a break from British television to help get away from it all.

"I’d finished Lovejoy and thought, ‘You’ve got to take yourself away from television for a while’. It didn’t really work - I’m as known now for Lovejoy as I always was, and probably always will be. It’s nice in some ways, but in other ways you want to say, ‘I have done other things, you know!’.

"I didn’t appear on television for about four or five years. Then I did In Deep and Man & Boy, both of which were great. But still people come up to me and say, ‘Oh, there’s Lovejoy’!"

Ian’s latest incarnation, Alan Cooper-Fozard, is an eccentric character. He is the top dog at Cooper-Fozard, the law firm which his father founded. His nickname is the P.G. ("The Power and the Glory") and, as such, Alan has the power to make or break any of his employees’ careers.

"I’d say Alan is quirky and morally upstanding. He is eccentric but he knows what’s going on. He’s his own man; you don’t know too much about him - I like that. He gets more eccentric throughout the series.

"Alan’s father helped to build the national health programme after World War II, so I think that gave him a good, solid grounding", Ian explains. "His pedigree serves as the bedrock of the company, even though it’s a commercial corporate law firm in the middle of the city".

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