We caught up with Lennie James on the red carpet, ahead of his BAFTA win. Report by Nelsonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Lady James, good to see you fella.
00:02Might I say, my favourite series of Line of Duty, that was as well.
00:05It was my one. You should tell everybody that.
00:08It was great, the great crescendo at the end of the series,
00:12but because your character was so good, it's always a shame that,
00:16unless it was a fake death, you can't come back again and enjoy what a global phenomenon it came later on.
00:22But enough about that, we're here for Mr. Loverman.
00:25Talk me through this show man, what it means to you,
00:28the love that it's bringing at the moment.
00:30I think it's an important story, but I also think it's a good story.
00:33I mean, it's populated by really interesting characters.
00:37We had a great source material from Bernadine's book.
00:40It's a story not really told before from the perspective of who's populating the story.
00:49It's the Windrush generation, but mostly when they tell stories about the Windrush generation,
00:56it's the no Irish, no dogs, no blacks story, and this is a different one.
01:01And it's important, and it was a huge amount of fun to do.
01:06Barrington is without question one of the most interesting and fun characters I've ever played.
01:11So it was just a, although in places it's very serious and heartbreaking, it was so much fun to do.
01:20Every day on set was a giggle.
01:22Do you think these kind of stories being shown on TV, the whole truth to power element is probably more important now than it ever has been?
01:30Because in politics, we have this generation where people can say whatever the hell they want and it doesn't seem like they're held to account
01:36because nobody seems to care what politicians are saying or doing anymore until after the fact.
01:41And sometimes it takes film and it takes television and it takes drama to show these stories and the impacts they make
01:47to actually get through to people properly in the way that news headlines don't seem to do anymore.
01:52Yeah, it feels to me that we're at a time when people are going to have to show resistance and people are going to have to fight for their perspective and their beliefs really.
02:04And I think particularly those people that have been deemed as other or disenfranchised or separate,
02:13the stories about them and their position in the world are vital at this particular moment in time.
02:20And it's hard enough in the past telling stories like this. It's going to be much harder in the present and the future.
02:25And that just means that we have to up our game and fight harder and not give up.
02:30Well mate, on a lighter note to end with, who are we excited to kind of rub shoulders with today?
02:35What have you been watching when you've not been working over the last 12 months?
02:39I've been watching The Pit, which is...
02:41The medical one?
02:42Yeah, it's really good. It is really good.
02:44And actually the people I wanted, the person I quite liked bumping into was Danny Dyer.
02:51Danny Dyer. I think we all like bumping into Danny Dyer.
02:54He just always makes me laugh. We did a film a couple of years ago and any time I think about him it just makes me giggle.
03:00And seeing him and seeing him doing so well just fills my heart with joy.
03:04Yeah, yeah, good value. I'd love to see him one day go to America and just see what the world thinks of Danny Dyer from their perspective.
03:10You should ask him about that because he's got a story.
03:14Good luck tonight fella.
03:15Thank you very much.
03:16We look forward to seeing you in the next one. Can't wait to see you doing your next.
03:18Cheers. Thank you very much.
03:19Cheers, bud.