IN HIS OWN WORDS: Dominic West

Currently starring as Noah Solloway in The Affair (9pm, Sky Atlantic), the Sheffield-born, Eton-educated Brit Dominic West, 48, has made his name playing Americans…

On how his breakthrough role, Baltimore Detective Jimmy McNulty in gritty drama The Wire (2002-08), affected his image:

‘I used to be considered a bit of an idiot, but now, I’m seen as streetwise and super-cool; that’s the power of a single role.’

On why he is so often cast in dark roles, such as serial killer Fred West in Appropriate Adult (2011):

‘Someone told me it’s because of my eyebrows – apparently, they have an evil arch. I guess that’s my defining physical trait.’

On why The Affair is so divisive:

‘It’s deliberately provocative. It’s deliberately melodramatic. There’s never a moment where there aren’t six things going on in the protagonist’s mind that aren’t highly traumatised and mentally extreme. And the characters don’t behave in a way that is necessarily sympathetic…

On whether he watches The Affair with his wife, landscape designer Catherine FitzGerald:

‘Certainly not! I can’t watch myself for very long without cringing and rushing for the off button. And my wife has watched little bits and said, “Very well done and marvellous, I don’t need to watch any more.”’

On the rumour that he turned down a part in Game Of Thrones before it hit the big time:

‘That’s not true, I didn’t turn anything down. I had a prior engagement – that was the only problem. That happens quite a lot.’