Danny's wise-cracking humour, at the beginning of the drama, also rang true.

“Their humour is quite dark – I love that. You need that, otherwise everyone is going to be sitting there feeling very depressed. You have to find a way of pulling people out of it. That's what Danny is like. But then he self-destructs," he says.

Graham was recently snapped up by director Martin Scorsese, no less, to play the most notorious hard man of modern times.

“I was just sat at home and my agent called,” he says. “He said to me: ‘Are you sitting down? and then said, ‘Marty wants to use you in this HBO series about gangsters in 1920s USA. He’s said he doesn’t want anyone but you to play Al Capone’.

“We are only shooting the pilot episode at first, so I need to get everything set up in case it gets the green light and I’ll be there for a while. Then I’ll need to get my family over there.”

He was thrilled at a rare chance to return to his roots – and use his natural accent – to film Awaydays, written and directed by Kevin Sampson.

Set in Wirral in the early 80s, it tells the story of a young Tranmere Rovers fan who is desperate to be accepted into hooligan gang The Pack which is led by Millen – “ex-Army and a bit of a loon . . . “ It was a story that chimed with memories for him.

“I’ve got this great jet black hair and a thin tache and looking back at family photos they all seemed to have the same tache.

“I was the image of Yosser Hughes, in Boys From The Black Stuff. It brought back memories of going to watch Liverpool as a kid and paying a fiver to sit in the kids’ Kop. Baby Millen is ex-Army and a bit of a loon ball. He definitely doesn’t want to grow up.

“It takes you back to the last big recession when everyone was losing their jobs and fellas would sit in the betting shop or pub all day.

“Heroin became rife and I knew a lot of good people who got pulled into that trap of addiction. In Baby’s case, running with a gang is all he’s got to cling onto. It gave people a sense of purpose even if it was a mad one. Sheer tribalism.”

They’re roles that couldn’t be further from life in his quiet Leicestershire village. Married to Hannah and father to Grace, four, and Alfie, two, his secret ambition is to appear on CBeebies Story Hour.

“It’s my number one ambition at the moment,” confesses Graham.

“I’d love to actually be in something my youngsters can watch. I love reading to them at bedtime, so I think I’d be perfect for it.”

OCCUPATION starts on BBC 1 on June 16, at 9pm.