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They used to send orders into The Beatles in Abbey Road. George Harrison loved his indian food. There's also a great restaurant in Garway in Ireland called Ard Bia, just on the river. There's a mackerel salad I'd highly recommend. Have you ever cheated death? No I've been pretty lucky with things like that. Once I've finished this interview I'll probably step in front of a bus though. What's the best age to be? The age you are now I think. Otherwise you're just living in the past or the future. What's your hidden talent? I can roll a coin along my fingers, my children are impressed by that. I'm double jointed in a kind of alarming way and can make grotesque shapes out of my fingers. Who's been the closest you've had to a mentor? There's been a few Irish actors that have been good to me such as Brendan Gleeson and Stephen Rea, who I'm on stage with at the moment, so I've always gone to them for advice. They've told me to always trust your instincts and that your instinct is probably your strongest attribute as an actor.
He starts to take control and wants to sort of manoeuvre the family towards more power and to give the family more leverage. It is a very tumultuous time with the fall out of the First World War when so many young men died and the effect that had on the soldiers who survived. I did a lot of reading, research and talking to people, they were deeply disillusioned to the point of being bitter by what happened in the Great War. Many of them were hugely traumatised and obviously PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and stuff like that didn't exist and they were just thrown back into civilian life and told to get on with it and that's the sort of the situation my character finds himself in. He was sergeant major and he was decorated so he's come back into this and has to try and fit those experiences into normal life. That element is very interesting, because you know, he's a fighting man I guess. He's come back from there with a massive disdain for authority, and godless. He's seen the fragility of life and how it disappears and so Tommy thinks, right I'm here and I'm going to do something with this life and this family; and so we see him being very driven but not quite sure what it is he's driving towards in the first few episodes - and it's only as the show evolves we begin to see what plan he has.