ActorNesbitt’s aLuckyManas his company seesitsprofits soar to £3.9m

JAMES Nesbitt’s stellar TV career — including hit roles in Cold Feet and Sky drama Lucky Man — saw profits at his firm soar to £3.9m last year.

That is according to new accounts lodged by the Coleraine actor’s firm Brown Cow Films Ltd at Companies House, which show that the firm enjoyed one of its best ever years in 2016-17.

Accumulated profits jumped by £669,649, from £3.29m to £3.96m in the 12 months to the end of March last.

Cold Feet is where Nesbitt first entered the spotlight in the 1990s, and the show has made a successful comeback.

Nesbitt also plays the lead role in Lucky Man.

The first series debuted in January 2016 and averaged 1.49m viewers per episode, making it Sky One’s most successful original drama series to date.

The success of the Nesbitt drama led to Sky commissioning an additional two series.

The actor’s continuing onscreen popularity contributed to Brown Cow Films’ current assets — made up of cash and money owed to the firm by debtors last year — increasing from £2.79m to £3.54m.

The accounts also disclose that the firm advanced £577,229 in loans to Mr Nesbitt during the year and some was used by him to purchase a home in November 2016.

Mr Nesbitt owed £376,496 to the company on April 1, 2016 and this had increased to £948,445 at the end of March this year. The value of Brown Cow Films’ fixed assets last year reduced from £663,834 to £349,865.

The actor is also known for his roles in the film Bloody Sunday, BBC primetime drama The Missing, and he gained worldwide recognition after featuring in The Hobbit series of films.

The third of the trilogy, based on Tolkien novel The Battle Of The Five Armies, was released worldwide in cinemas in Decem- ber 2014. The three Hobbit movies have amassed almost $3bn at the box office.

Nesbitt’s time playing the dwarf Bofur involved him spending two years in New Zealand, undertaking what he called the ‘brutal’ journey Down Under 12 times.

The £669,649 profit enjoyed by the firm last year is almost seven times the £119,714 recorded in the 12 months to the end of March 31, 2015.

This follows a strong performance by the firm in prior years, with profits increasing by £340,000 in 2014, £285,000 in 2013 and £425,000 in 2012.

In 2016 he was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours list for services to Northern Ireland and to acting after years of work helping families affected by the Troubles.

Nesbitt — who celebrates his 53rd birthday later this month — initially had ambitions of being a teacher, but dropped out of his college course to pursue a career in acting.

His upbringing here was largely unaffected by the sectarian strife.

In an interview last year, he said: “I grew up in a Protestant background.

“But I co-existed very easily with Catholics, and certainly I was one of that generation who was more interested in falling in love and partying.”