STARRING AS ANTI-HERO TOM RIPLEY ANDREW SCOTT ON FINDING GOOD IN A BAD GUY AND REINVENTING A FAMOUS ROLE

Andrew Scott has always felt comfortable playing villains – not that he chooses to see them that way, preferring the term “anti-hero”.

- GILL PRINGLE

A brilliant stage actor, he secured his entry into our living rooms as Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis Moriarty, playing opposite Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in the BBC’s Sherlock. There were other baddies along the way, including James Bond’s sinister antagonist Max Denbigh in Spectre in 2015.

His witty turn as Fleabag’s “hot priest” lifted the shroud of villainy, transforming him into a sex symbol and enabling him to take on a broader range of roles, including his recent performance opposite Paul Mescal in romantic drama All of Us Strangers.

But it’s his dark characters that have struck a chord with viewers. His reign as Moriarty resulted in a rather disturbing haul of “fan” mail, so one can only imagine the response to his most twisted characterisation to date: that of Patricia Highsmith’s murderous grifter Tom Ripley.

GETTING TO GRIPS WITH RIPLEY

Set in the 1960s, the new eight-part Netflix drama Ripley – written and directed by Oscar winner Steven Zaillian (The Irishman, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and filmed entirely in black and white – provides far more time to delve into the title character’s warped world than when Matt Damon memorably portrayed him in the 1999 movie The Talented Mr Ripley.