CV: Stephen Mangan

In Episodes (10pm, BBC2), Stephen Mangan, 49, plays a British screenwriter trying to maintain his integrity in Hollywood. Here are some of his career highlights to date…

Early promise: According to Stephen, he and his sisters would write plays together, and had a ‘well-used dressing-up box’. When he was around 14, his prog rock band, Aragon, recorded an album called The Wizard’s Dream. He’s ‘delighted to report you can’t find it anywhere’.

Big break: After graduating from Rada in 1994, he took to the stage, where he still performs – he was nominated for a Tony Award in 2009 as the lead in The

Norman Conquests on Broadway. His first regular TV role was providing voices in the 1999 animated series Watership

Down (he still does voice work in adverts and documentaries); in 2001, he starred in Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years.

Leading man: Several signature TV roles followed, including womanising anaesthetist Guy Secretan in Green Wing (2004-06), the eponymous holistic detective in Dirk Gently

(2010-12) and Tony Blair in two Comic Strip Presents films ( The Hunt For Tony Blair in 2011 and Red Top in 2016). On the big screen, Stephen’s biggest role to date has been Postman Pat in the 2014 film animation. Coming soon: The Split, which co-stars Nicola Walker and Meera Syal, is scheduled to air later this year on BBC1. From the director of last year’s Apple Tree Yard, and written by Abi Morgan ( The Iron Lady, Suffragette), it looks very promising.