Robert Carlyle: Cobra made me sympathise with politicians

Robert Carlyle has said he thought his new drama Cobra was about a snake when he got the script.

The Trainspotting star, 58, plays prime minister Robert Sutherland in Sky's political drama.

The Trainspotting star, 58, plays prime minister Robert Sutherland in Sky's political drama.

But he said at first he thought the title referred to a snake rather than the name of a meeting room - Cabinet Office Briefing Room A.

"I thought it was a script about a snake," said the star. "I didn't know that much at all.

"I spoke to a couple of Scots politicians who told me about it. It's convened quite a lot, these things happen the public don't know.

"So that was new for me."

Carlyle insisted that when he tells people he is in a show called Cobra, "they look at me as if 'Why are you doing a show about a snake?'"

The actor also revealed that making the six-part drama made him sympathise with what prime ministers go through.

Asked if he had sympathy with what they have to do, he said: "Prior to doing this I had absolutely zero I would think.

"But during that time I remember Theresa May was going back and forward to Brussels and she was ageing five years by the week while I was making this and I felt for her.

"Of course she's got a life, she's got problems, the stuff we all have going on in her lives. I felt for her as a human being and from one human being to another."

Cobra - which also stars Victoria Hamilton, Richard Dormer and David Haig - is on Sky One on January 17.