Stars in their homes ‘I’m creating a man cave with no electronics’

Braveheart star James Cosmo tells Dan Moore: ‘I grew up with bombsites as playgrounds, now I live in a four-bed home made of oak’

Scottish actor James Cosmo, 76, has starred in a host of most memorable films, including Trainspotting, Braveheart and Highlander. Away from the silver screen he’s turned in scene-stealing performances in the likes of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Game of Thrones

and His Dark Materials.

Aside from acting, James is an avid cook and fly fisher, and launched Storyman, his own brand of whisky, earlier this year.

He lives with his wife Annie and two sons near Weybridge in Surrey.

WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO YOUR CURRENT HOME?

My wife Annie loves looking at those property programmes, Escape to the Country or whatever. I can’t stand them, but there you go. Anyway, about 18 years ago, she was looking around and found this place, which had only been built four years before.

It’s made almost entirely from green oak, put together with joists, and it’s very beautiful. It’s built upside down, with the four bedrooms on the ground floor and the kitchen and living spaces upstairs. It has glass between the beams, which lets in even more light and it has stunning views of the woods. Although we have neighbours within shouting distance, it feels secluded.

IS YOUR HOME REMINISCENT OF WHEN YOU WERE BROUGHT UP? Not at all. I was brought up in Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, where we lived in tenement blocks. Bearing in mind I was born just two years after the war had ended. The Germans had bombed the hell out of the area and the bombsites were our playgrounds.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE ROOM? I’m creating a man cave at the moment, which may end up being my favourite room. I’ve got to burn a load of junk, which should take 24 hours, and then I’ll put down a floor. I’m still trying to decide what it’s going to be.

I thought about a workshop, but given the closest I’ve got to manual work is hitting something with a pickaxe, that’s probably not the best idea. I may turn it into a fishing barn, as I’ve got hundreds of rods and equipment, but the main thing for me is to have a quiet space, where there’s no electronics.

WHAT’S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST HOME IMPROVEMENT PROJECT? We extended our home at the side, with the biggest challenge being the foundations. You see, we have a lovely, very ancient oak tree just at the front of the drive that’s quite rightly covered by a preservation order.

This meant we couldn’t dig foundations in the usual trench manner. So, we had a couple of weeks of these pile drivers smashing great holes, which were filled with concrete.

It was pretty expensive to get that done, but it meant the bespoke brick work around the ground floor, which had come from Holland, could be laid. The brickies did a great job, and it looks lovely.

WHAT’S YOUR MOST TREASURED POSSESSION?

I have a locket with a lock of my mum’s hair in it. I’d say that’s the most precious thing, followed by my greatgrandfather’s pocket watch and chain. I like to look at it now and then, and think that more than 150 years ago it was worn by some gentleman. Although he telegraph.co.uk/ moneynewsletter

might not have been a gentleman, in my family that’s unlikely.

WHERE WOULD YOU LIVE IF YOU HAD TO MOVE?

We live in a lovely village with delightful neighbours and I’m only 20 minutes away from a mainline train station so I can get into London in an hour. But, if I personally had to choose, and my boys had left home, I think I’d live in the Scottish Borders. It’s a hidden gem, and I love it.

HOW DO YOU RELAX AT HOME? I have the woods at the back, and my dog, so I like going out there with him. I do a lot of fly fishing in the summer. We had raised beds made this year and grew some vegetables, including some very interesting-looking carrots, which would be hard to identify as carrots, but that’s what it said on the packet!

Last year I planted buckets of potatoes and spent weeks watering them and they looked magnificent when they came into bloom. Sadly, they only produced marble- sized potatoes. I didn’t plant them this year because we’re quite close to Waitrose and they do very good potatoes.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?

I’ve just come back from filming a Celtic thriller called The Morrigan in Northern Ireland. It was quite arduous because there were a lot of night shoots, but I was incredibly impressed by Belfast and even more so by the warmth of the people. Aside from that, my whisky Storyman launched this year, and it’s doing really well. We’ve come out on top of blind tastings that have featured bottles costing three times as much. It is a gorgeous whisky and we’re planning to distribute it in China and the US.

James Cosmo’s Storyman whisky costs £55 and is available at storymanwhisky.com.