I used to be an arrogant twit... I hope I'm not now

ROSS KEMP ON 'GROWING UP' AFTER EASTENDERS

- EMMA COX

As Queen Vic landlord Grant Mitchell in EastEnders, Ross Kemp was involved in gangster plots, love triangles, and murder whodunnits that kept him on the front pages throughout his years on the soap.

Looking back, the actor admits the fame and money went to his head.

He says: "I'll be very honest, I think I was a bit of an arrogant twit when I was 25. I was being watched by 25 million people. I didn't have a care in the world.

"I had no responsibilities, no children, no one to look after, no one to care for.

"That manifested itself in selfishness and arrogance.

Now 58, he has become better known for documentary series such as Extreme World and Ross Kemp: On Gangs, which have taken him to the world's toughest prisons, wars and disaster zones.

He is also married and he and his wife Renee O'Brien have three children - Leo, eight, and five-year-old twins Ava and Kitty. He has a son Oliver from a previous relationship.

So he is older and wiser and will bring all that experience to bear as he returns to our screens as an actor, playing a detective in Channel 5's series Blindspot.

When we meet on the set in Hungary's capital Budapest, he talks about the only other time he's played a policeman, in the 2000 thriller Without Motive, which also starred Kenneth Cranham.

He says: "I don't think I did a good enough job on Without Motive. I was in a different stage of my life. I was on a rolling contract where you wander from one job to the next. I don't think I took it as seriously as I should have done. I was too young.

"Now I know a lot more about the world. God, I've been to over 120 different countries since then and I've not been staying in four-star hotels.