The P.G. pops up in each episode, offering nuggets of his wisdom to various employees. He is very well respected by the lawyers, but they all know about and accept his quirky nature."

Ian enjoyed working with the likes of Robson Green and Sarah Parish, and thought Simon Block’s script was "intelligent, fresh and exciting".

"It was a very enjoyable shoot," Ian laughs. "I got to work with the delightful Sarah Parish and Chewi and Eva - and then, of course, there’s Robson, who I got on very well with."

Ian has become the king of cool once again, thanks in no small part to his role in Jonathan Glazer’s critically acclaimed Sexy Beast and the lunchtime repeats of Lovejoy classics. But this time, Ian is a cult figure amongst a younger, student audience.

"I’ve got a whole new fan-base who didn’t watch Lovejoy first time around," explains Ian. "And because the programme is now being repeated at lunchtimes, a newer, younger audience can watch it and find it cool. It was a very good programme - it was well shot, the scripts were good; it was funny and quite sexy."

The new, hip Ian McShane has been keeping very busy recently, shooting various movies, including a Hollywood blockbuster with Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz, and filming BBC dramas In Deep, Man & Boy.

"I did a film last year called Bollywood Queen, which is very funny. It’s a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, with a white Romeo and an Asian Juliet, set in London with music and dancing. I’ve also played a cop in another movie called Paper, Scissors, Stone, a psychological thriller by first time New Zealand writer and director Jesse Warn. An American cop, Romeo’s Scottish father, and Alan Cooper-Fozard - it’s been quite a good, albeit eclectic, year!"

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