Richard Madden Will Return In…

What makes a good James Bond? British? Of course. Scottish? Even better. Can he play brutish but vulnerable? Worked last time. Sharp in a tux? See right. But it’s his bone-dry quips that explain why Richard Madden is odds-on to make Double-O-status. Oh, and guess what? He even drinks Vodka Martinis.

- Stuart McGurk

Richard Madden has a habit of putting himself in situations that are, if he’s to tell you honestly; the worst possible situations he can possibly imagine himself being in. For instance, he hates singing, says he can’t sing, says being forced to sing is pretty much one of his worst nightmares, says, ‘Thank fuck for autotune!’ with reference to his role in Rocketman. And yet tomorrow, he’s doing ‘Carpool Karaoke’, where he’ll be singing. When I say I thought that was only for actual singers, he corrects me. ‘No. Stupid people too.’ By which he means: people who say yes.

People. That’s another one. Madden has an issue with them. He thinks, he says, that they’re all looking at him. Of course, he’s right about that. They are. As Madden walks across the floor to me wearing the expression of a man bracing for impact, the heads of diners left and right turn like spectators following a tennis point. Is that... Yes. It’s the bodyguard from Bodyguard, the man who a week ago was reported to have been offered the role of 007 to succeed Daniel Craig, the star of a show whose finale was confirmed by the BBC a few days earlier as the most watched drama episode since records began, an actor who was already TV famous after his star-making turn as Robb Stark in Game Of Thrones, but is suddenly Coca-Cola famous thanks to something everyone said had died: appointment TV, water-cooler TV; Twitter trending-no-spoilers-please TV. And that’s all well and, of course, is why we are here. But also: people. ‘It does no favours to the old paranoia and general anxiety,’ he says. ‘Your paranoia is actually real.’