SERIOUS business

SIMON PEGG on playing against type in a political thriller

- STEVEN PERKINS

THE UNDECLARED WAR THURSDAY, 9PM, C4 DRAMA

Simon Pegg has enjoyed his fair share of comedic roles over the past two decades, so the actor is delighted to be flexing his dramatic muscles in C4's cyber-thriller The Undeclared War.

Last week's opener found Simon's character GCHQ's head of operations Danny Patrick - at the centre of the action after a virus severely impaired the UK's internet providers. Now, as his team examine the code to ensure they haven't missed any additional threats, the responsibility of keeping the nation safe is weighing heavily on Danny.

Here, Simon, 52, gives us his take...

Why did you want to play Danny?

I was extremely flattered to be sent the script, because it's not the kind of role that people normally assume I would be interested in. I'm pretty bad at reading scripts, but I picked up episode one of this and I didn't stop until I finished episode six; I was so gripped by the story.