James Norton

From March, the actor will lead the West End adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara's tragic bestseller. But right now, he's back as the monstrous Tommy Lee Royce ...

And that is a very small – and I’m not in any way comparing my experience to Jude’s, because it is a tiny sliver of what Jude experiences – but it is a way in for me. “Ahh, that’s going to be the headline, isn’t it?” He concedes, though, that being part of that conversation is “amazing and nuts”. He is the most extreme example of someone who is full of goodness and warmth and yet is so full of self-loathing because of the way he is treated. “So actually my experience is very different from Jude’s, apart from the fact that Ampleforth was a Catholic boarding school and it was a monastery, but it was a huge monastery and there were 550 boys as opposed to just one. “It’s the fact I went to a Catholic boarding school, where there was an inquiry into very sad and horrible things that were discovered and should not have happened,” he says, “and I didn’t have any experience of that when I was at that school. “The last time it was screened in Moscow,” he says, “there were masked gunmen who came and shut the screening down. For three months?’ But it being this scary and terrifying prospect is the reason why you have to do it.” “I think the beauty of Sally and her writing is that she really, really f***s with the relationship you have with the characters,” he says, almost whispering the swear word. it came out when we were filming the first series of Grantchester, which was a role much more similar to me, and there was a risk that if I’d just done Grantchester I’d have been known as the well-spoken floppy-haired guy who can just do that.” “She likes to make you think you’re dealing with a psychopath and then rip the rug out from under your feet, so that suddenly you’re feeling this sympathy for them and you can’t quite understand why.” The star of [Happy Valley ](/topic/happy-valley)and McMafia is wearing a “big, baggy tracksuit” and plans to have a “hefty snooze” after our interview, because he can’t stay awake on long drives. The killing is quickly linked back to Royce, who we discover has been transferred to a Sheffield prison, where he’s been having secret meetings with his son (and Cawood’s grandson) Ryan (Rhys Connah), and he is as chillingly childlike and playful as ever.

The actor, 37, plays villainous murderer and sex offender Tommy Lee Royce in the drama who grows long locks while in prison.

'I loved having long hair – it was fun, and I found myself hanging out in the mousse section of Boots. There is something magical that happens when you have an audience, but I am terribly nervous and ask myself every day, 'Why the hell are you doing this?' 'They are the funniest scrips I have read since Derry Girls. Asked about also being reunited with his young Belfast co-star Jude Hill, he said: 'I love that boy so much. Change up: James Norton has revealed that he loved his Happy Valley character's long hair and 'Messiah' look while filming the last series of the drama [James Norton](/tvshowbiz/james-norton/index.html) has revealed that he loved his [Happy Valley character's long hair ](/tvshowbiz/article-11523579/James-Norton-dons-huge-forehead-scar-villain-Tommy-Lee-Royce-season-3-Happy-Valley.html)and 'Messiah' look while filming the last series of the drama.