Mark Bonnar

Mark, 48, starred in TV thriller Apple Tree Yard and is back in Catastrophe this spring. He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife, Lucy Gaskell, and their children, Martha, five, and Samuel, two.

We already knew you from serious roles in popular shows like Shetland,

but now you have a comedy career, too. How did that happen?

Luck, probably! And the fact that people were willing to take a chance on me doing something I wasn’t known for. When I started acting, I played a lot of psychopaths because I give a good 1,000-metre stare! But realising that I can make people laugh, too, has been wonderful.

Catastrophe, Channel 4’s turbulent relationship comedy, looks like a lot of fun to work on. Is it?

It most certainly is. Chris, who I play, is completely out there – as are all the characters in the show, which is why it has the ability to make you put your hand over your mouth at the same time as you are laughing. You are thinking, ‘Wow! I’ve never said something like that out loud before!’ I think of it as a kind of sitcom… with Tourette’s.

You and Ashley Jensen play a married couple. How is that?

Well, it certainly helped that we’d already worked together. Many years before Ashley became wellknown for Extras, we were in a play together at the National Theatre, and I have been a great admirer of her work ever since. I was excited to learn that we’d be playing husband and wife, and the experience was every bit as good as I hoped.

Are you easier to live with when you’re doing a comedy than something dark like the recent

BBC thriller, Apple Tree Yard?

Ha. Ha. You should ask my wife! She always says that the worst is when I’m in a play, because you have to live and breathe it every night for many weeks. There comes a point when she’ll say, ‘You’re a nightmare. I can’t wait for this to be over.’

You were in TV dramas Home Fires and Unforgotten and both have a female lead. Was that refreshing?

Yes, and I’m proud to be in dramas that redress the balance because, for a long time, men mostly called the shots in TV dramas. Home Fires

meant working with a brilliant bunch of women at the very top of their game, which I loved, and Unforgotten

was really a vehicle for the amazing Nicola Walker. All power to her.

Do you admire strong women?

I do. My wife is an ambassador for Women’s Aid and my mum is a strong woman, too. When

I was growing up, she worked for Edinburgh District Council and would drive a double-decker play bus out to small communities that didn’t have any playgroups. She even had to get her Public Service Vehicle licence!

Has becoming a parent yourself changed you?

It has toughened me up, as I get by on a lot less sleep than I used to! It has also softened me up – I’m even more likely to cry at the drop of a hat now. Sometimes, Lucy will say, ‘Are you crying again?’

Despite the tears, you seem to be in a very happy place!

Well, I wouldn’t want to jinx it, but I do feel blessed with so many things in my life right now – my wife, my kids, my work – and I acknowledge it on a fairly regular basis. I’ll look into my children’s eyes and think, ‘How lucky am I?’ • Unforgotten and Apple Tree Yard are available on DVD. Catastrophe returns to Channel 4 this spring.