Tell me about Nineteen Eighty – had you seen any of Nineteen Seventy-Four before you shot it?

The three parts were all shot around the same time, so Seventy-Four was finishing as we were starting. I hadn’t seen it, but although they’re connected, they all work as stand alone pieces.

Had you read the David Peace books?

I’d read the books and I love them. He’s one of those guys who paints a very, very dark world but it’s also poetic. The books are violent and bleak and paranoid, but they also do something else. That interested me. He writes about a dark period in our history.

What do you remember about the Yorkshire Ripper case?

I was only growing up at the time, but about 1980, I became more aware of things. Britain was a much darker, harder place. I remember miner’s strikes and bin men going on strike. Corruption and police brutality, violence everywhere. It was very bleak. And this was the backdrop to the hunt for the Ripper…

I remember everyone talking about it in the playground…

It terrified everybody. And the police really made a mess of the case.

Did you speak to anybody involved in the case as background to your character?

Yes, I spoke to a guy who actually worked on the Ripper case, Andrew Sloane, and he spoke of the corruption and mistakes the squad made before he was brought in.

They interviewed Sutcliffe nine times before he was caught red-handed!

Yeah. The corruption and mistakes are a lot more brutal in Peace’s books but it was certainly happening. And people were taking the piss out of it through the events.

What people?

Well, when I did Hot Fuzz, I spoke to some murder detectives and they said that whenever there was a murder they would almost rub their hands together at the overtime police get on any murder case.

Christ. What is your character’s role in Nineteen Eighty? He’s a detective from outside the West Yorkshire police right?

Yeah. Hunter is brought in by the Home Office to investigate some multiple murders at a club, but he is pulled off that case when his wife has a miscarriage. He has a history of investigating corruption. He’s on the other side of the fence to most of the West Yorkshire police force.

What? He’s honest?

He’s quite clean cut and does his job well. At this point the police have spent millions on the case and got nowhere.

I remember the Wearside Jack tape [a hoaxer claiming to be the Ripper]…

Well, it totally threw the case. The police really believed this was the guy. Two more girls were murdered because of his hoaxes. Sutcliffe was overlooked so many times – he was interviewed a lot. They had him.  His boot prints, the gap between his teeth and some of them – Andrew Sloane in particular – thought Sutcliffe was the man. Then this tape and letters came and it put them off the scent.

John Humble. That was the Hoaxer’s name, yeah?

Yeah. He was only recently convicted. [Humble was caught in 2005. He received eight years the following year]

Are you drawn to dark parts?

I don’t really know at all, man. I just like certain things – certain qualities have to resonate with me. I need emotions. I can’t deliver great line reading. I’m not that sort of actor.

Leave it out – Morell in Romeo Brass is brilliantly played.

Romeo Brass was exceptional. It came out of an energy Shane and I generated together. A culmination of all the guys I had grown up with. There was a Morell on every estate.

I know a Morell. In fact, he’s had a party trick which links to the Yorkshire Ripper.

What was that?

He used to recite all the victims’ names, ages, and the place and cause of death. This went on throughout the Ripper years. It was mad. Dark and funny. He was a good bloke, just odd. He once wore one black shoe and one grey shoe to a wedding without noticing.

Yeah? I still see them now. There are Morells everywhere.

Didn’t you base teh character on a bare-knuckle boxer?

Only the accent. The voice is from a guy named Bartley Gorman. The King of the Gypsies.

Is that the bloke you are writing your script about?

Yeah. We’ve got to a certain place with it,  but there will be other drafts.  All of those decisions are Shane’s really. Anyway, Bartley is Morell’s accent. It just came out of nowhere. It wasn’t predetermined, it just happened.

How is Bartley Gorman?

He’s dead. He died of cancer a few years ago. Bartley was a wonderful, funny men, a joy to be with. You know, he never spoke of violence and didn’t live up to the cliché. A massive character born into fighting, but it didn’t define him. A true jack the lad.

Do you like boxing?

I used to go boxing with me dad and I am still a fan now. It’s my main passion outside work and music. I look forward to it and have all the upcoming fights in my diary. And I’ve always found the boxing community to be a great bunch of people.

What stuff made you think you would like to act rather than box?

Rocky was the film. I really paid attention to it. You show it to youngsters now and they find it boring – they like Rocky IV and V. I watched Rocky with my dad and it really shaped me. Then the Scorsese, and Allan Clarke films.

Have you seen anything recently that has hit a nerve?

I watched The Wrestler and it was the best thing I’ve seen since There Will Be Blood. Aronofsky doesn’t make a mistake and for Rourke – it’s the culmination of his life. It’s career-defining for me.

What’s next?

I don ‘t know. I don’t have a plan. I don’t want to come across as someone who hates acting but I will never be able to watch myself in things. It’s the making I am interested in, working with writer and directors and actors. I feel creative then, afterwards I feel detached. I get kids coming up to me and saying, ‘You were great in that.’And I think, ‘You’re kidding – I wish I could see what you see.’

Well, we like what you do and it’s not really down to you to decide what’s good or bad is it?

Red Riding will be screened in three parts on Channel 4 in March.