Line of FIRE

TARON EGERTON on the complexities of playing a troubled arson investigator

- ELAINE PENN

SMOKE NEW FROM FRIDAY 27 JUNE, APPLE TV+ DRAMA (FIRST TWO EPISODES FROM 27 JUNE, THEN WEEKLY)

Figuratively speaking, fire - and, more specifically, smoke - seems to follow Taron Egerton around.

One of his early TV roles was alongside Jamie Bamber and Jodie Whittaker in Sky One drama The Smoke back in 2014 when he played firefighter Dennis ‘Asbo’ Severs, joining London’s White Watch crew as a rookie with a dark secret.

And although he shot to super-stardom shortly afterwards with a lead role in the Kingsman film franchise, and earned a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Sir Elton John in 2019 biopic Rocketman, he's been lured back to the world of firefighting in Smoke, Apple TV+'s new thriller, which reunites Taron with the show's creator, acclaimed novelist Dennis Lehane, with whom he worked on 2022 true-crime miniseries Black Bird.

The actor, who was born in Birkenhead and raised in Wales, plays Dave Gudsen, a firefighter turned arson investigator. Haunted by memories of being trapped in a burning house in his former job, he's married to Ashley (Hannah Emily Anderson) and has a teenage stepson, Emmett (Luke Roessler). Theirs is not a happy marriage and Dave throws himself into his work while, on the side, he's started writing a book about the crime scenes he's visited.

With two serial arsonists causing chaos in the fictional town of Umberland in America's Pacific Northwest, he reluctantly finds himself paired up with ambitious detective Michelle Calderone (Jurnee Smollett), who has her own demons.