More influences poured into the Hardys' original conception: including Roland Joffé's 1986 film The Mission - and, in creating Osborne (later James Keziah Delaney), the early cinematic performances of Oliver Reed and Richard Burton.

Where did you learn to act? Have you seen that movie Whiplash? I went to a school like that. You know, a drama school very similar to that. And the guy that trained me, they based Hannibal Lecter on him. His pursuit was just to fucking destroy us. He wanted us to achieve excellence, and I think all of us failed to impress him, to be fair.

I mean, look at her in Monster—that's not somebody walking in the park. You don't just summon up that kind of authenticity without bringing a tremendous wealth of artistic ability. She's a very serious actor.

Hardy confesses that he’d hoped to work with Roskam after seeing the Belgian director’s Oscar-nominated drama about a steroid-addled cattle farmer, Bullhead (2011.) “The movie genuinely fucked me up,” the actor says. “It just left me a wreck: ‘Well, thanks for that, mate…I’m going to just go stare into the abyss now for a while.’ But I could see how talented he was.”

I used Ted Bundy as a reference point, actually” Hardy says, puffing away on an e-cigarette. “I mean, there’s a lot of stuff I threw in there as I was trying to find my way: a lot of the Lenny character in Of Mice and Men, a little bit of The Sunshine Boys in terms of the relationship with Gandolfini, the classic notion of the bartender as therapist.

I find crying difficult. It takes a long time for me to go. And I won’t know what will send me. I’m quite sentimental. If my son tells me he loves me, that will make me cry. [Richard Dreyfuss drama] Mr Holland’s Opus, unbelievably, broke me. A random anomaly.

"'Platoon.' I just think the end is really classy. I just thought it was a really beautifully put together film. "And 'Platoon' has got -- with the exception unfortunately of Charlie Sheen, everybody else in it is dope. Every actor and every character that I need as an English guy [is there]. You know what I mean? Every accent, class, creed, color, and religion is in there for me, so it’s a study book. It was something that had a taste across America [from] working class to upper class. It just had everything in it. "Plus, it’s the ’60s and ’70s, and it was a conscript Army, so it was an Everyman film."

Hardy reveals that his love for dogs extends to his TV viewing choices—and that he regularly watches The Dog Whisperer.

And I watch Come Dine with Me with my wife. Keep it real. Let’s be honest, that shit is good.