Robert Glenister’s Paranoid role is no cop-out

IT’S a fair cop — telly’s full of police dramas of one kind or another.

But Robert Glenister, star of ITV’s new eight-part conspiracy thriller Paranoid, insists it’s just a little different.

And that was definitely part of the appeal.

“It starts with a young GP and mother being brutally stabbed to death in a kids’ playground in front of witnesses,” Robert, 56, tells The Weekly News.

“I play one of the rural cops investigating what seems to be quite a straightforward case.

“But it soon turns out to be something much more complex, and goes off at a massive tangent, including taking the investigation to Germany.

“It was a real page-turner. I read the first three episodes to begin with and I couldn’t put it down.

“There is a place for a straight police procedural on television, but this isn’t it.

“And the character I play, Bobby Day, was really interesting because he’s coming to the end of his career, has no life outside of the job and suffers panic attacks.”

Robert, whose brother is Life on Mars star Philip, is one of TV’s most-familiar faces.

He was a regular as the Home Secretary in Spooks and played lead conman Ash Morgan in every episode of the BBC’s long-running hit Hustle.

While he admits most people can distinguish telly fiction from reality, he says the role did occasionally have an impact.

“Although we started making it 13 years ago, Hustle is still very much around,” says Robert, who has two grown-up kids with his radio producer wife Celia.

“When I’m channel hopping, I still come across it. And fans of the show at the start maybe have kids of their own now and a younger generation has been introduced to it.

“I remember when we were on at first that if I paid for something by credit card, people would look at it wondering if it was genuine.”

Ever-busy Robert fitted in filming of Paranoid in the UK and Germany with a role in big American film, Live By Night.

Starring and directed by Ben Affleck, and also featuring Sienna Miller, it’s a 1920s-set gangster movie, which was shot in Boston and Los Angeles.

He had to go back out to LA to complete filming after Paranoid and admits the movie lifestyle was a little different from his evenings in Manchester.

“Rather than go out to restaurants, I’d find it quite cathartic to come back to the apartment they had for me at nights and do a bit of cooking,” says London-based Robert.

“It sounds a bit Billy no mates, but I love cooking and it was better than sitting sad and lonely in a restaurant.”

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