Ken Stott: Give Rebus the Netflix treatment

Stott admitted he was open to again playing Ian Rankin’s famous fictional detective – but believes new episodes need more screen time.

Previous plots have been crammed into one episode, meaning huge swatches of Rankin’s storylines had to be cut or squeezed.

In an interview with a Sunday paper, Stott, 62, said: “We were always under pressure to get a story out and done within an hour and that’s a tall order.

“You fall foul of formulaic principles – it’s always formulas, formulas, all the same, with a happy ending – and we have to do something better than that.

“Filming it over 20 hours – that’s a very good idea.”

The actor, who lives in London, admitted he initially turned down the role of Rebus – first played by John Hannah – before eventually agreeing.

He said: “I turned it down because I had just done The Vice and The Messiah and I felt there were too many cops there – I didn’t want to become typecast.

“But every time I was in Edinburgh, I’d be walking along Princes Street and people would be saying ‘Hiya, how are you doing? You should be playing Rebus’.”