MALCOLM MCDOWELL

The Truth Seekers star talks breakfast cereal, death threats and drag

- Ian Berriman

Those blue eyes! The surrounding features may have changed with the passing years, the hair above them turned into a silvery shock, but there’s no mistaking their mischievous glint. And whenever their owner’s smile bends into a smirk, you get a sudden flash of Alex DeLarge or Mick Travis.

We meet the man who killed Kirk in inauspicious surroundings: not just a dingy catering van, but one parked near a derelict, bird shit-encrusted Shredded Wheat factory. We’re on location for Truth Seekers, a new series from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, centered on Frost’s amateur ghost hunter. As Gus’s curmudgeonly dad Richard, introduced on a stairlift and prone to sitting about in his pants, McDowell is often the butt of the joke – but as our conversation makes clear, the actor clearly thinks ridicule is nothing to be scared of…

So how are you finding working in the disused Shredded Wheat factory?

It’s sort of sad in away. I mean, I guess this was the state of the art when it was built. But it’s an amazing place to shoot. I have to be honest, I never was that keen on Shredded Wheat myself – I found it rather dry…

You’ve worked with some incredible talents – …