Major Player

Hugh Laurie takes command as a martini-sipping officer in Catch-22

- Hannah Davies

Catch-22 may be a quintessentially American tale, yet when George Clooney was casting the six-part series, there was only one man he wanted to play US Major de Coverley, and he was British.

Like most people, Clooney had admired Hugh Laurie’s performance as the curmudgeonly Dr Gregory House in hit drama House, and he knew Laurie would be perfect as Catch-22’s eccentric major with a taste for fine food.

When Clooney contacted Laurie to offer him the role, the 60-year-old actor leapt at the chance to appear in the World War Two drama about the efforts of young pilot John Yossarian (Christopher Abbott) to get a discharge home.