TV CV: James Norton

Currently playing Alex Godman in McMafia (9pm, BBC1), James Norton, 32, has hardly had time to draw breath since Happy Valley made him a household name…

Early promise: Though born in London in 1985, James Geoffrey Ian Norton grew up in north Yorkshire, the son of teachers Hugh and Lavinia. At the age of 15, while at Ampleforth boarding school, he did work experience at a theatre in Scarborough – ‘I wanted to act ever since I played Joseph in the Nativity at the age of four.’ After gaining a first in theology at Cambridge, where he was in a theatre club, James enrolled at Rada in London.

And he’s off: After a small role in the 2009 film An Education, James appeared in stage productions while working as a children’s entertainer to make ends meet (‘I just got to run around and be a big kid’). Before long, he was being cast in minor films and major TV dramas, such as Inspector George Gently and Death Comes To Pemberley – and in 2014, he became an overnight star thanks to his award-winning turn as Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley, along with roles in Life In Squares and Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Since then, playing the Reverend Sidney Chambers in Grantchester and Andrei Bolkonsky in War & Peace has seen his fanbase going global. Coming up: Having finished a US remake of 1990 thriller Flatliners,

James is currently starring in Belleville at the Donmar Warehouse. And what’s next? ‘I know it’s massive, but I’d love to do Hamlet.’ Watch this space…