TV
In the 90-minute special - penned by Caleb Ranson (Diamond Geezer) -Harman plays Nathan Hyde, an expert codecracker who can break into any safe in the world - but has decided to retire. That is, until his old boss Gabriel (Brian Cox) tracks him down for one last mission.
DS speaks to the man in question about the show, his career ambitions and life after 'Enders.
So, The Outsiders - is this part and parcel of the master plan?
"Master plan?! No, I didn't have a master plan really, I think when you leave a show like [EastEnders] you worry if you're ever going to work again. I went off and did some theater, and I thought at some point I would end up doing something which would involve me running around, but it wasn't something I craved to do. There's so many things I want to do really so it wasn't a master plan so to speak, but it came along, I read the script and it was a hard one to say no to really. I was very lucky in that I got sent a lot of stuff, and this one stood out - I liked its energy and I liked the fact that I hadn't really seen something like this on telly for a very long time. We go to Paris and we extend the boundaries - we don't just sit around at coffee table talking rubbish. So I'm glad I'm doing it, but it wasn't part of a big remit in my life."
This is a big, running around action series. Could this launch you into becoming the new action man of TV, like Ross (Kemp) before you?
"I doubt it! I enjoy it as something to do, but I'm an actor - I'm off to Sheffield at the weekend to do Pinter and my heart lies very much there just as much as it would do in something like this. I'm 33 now, and I haven't got many good running years left in me, so I thought I'd get it done before I'm in a zimmerframe hopping around doing it that way. So no, I can't see myself pursuing an action hero line, I would find that too safe and a bit boring."
Why too safe?
"I want to do lots of different things - I want to be doing some character stuff and stuff that stretches me as an actor rather than having to get down the gym for eight weeks before the show starts! I'm inherently lazy so I'd like to do a job where I can have a beer gut."
This show is high on action and stunts - did you sustain any injuries while filming?
"Yeah I've still got a scar on the back of my hand from when I caught it in that caravan thing, and the make-up designer said it was the best bit of make-up he'd done in the show because it was real! You can actually see it bleeding in the scene. And for me it was about bruises, every night I'd go home and have a bath and count a new bruise, and if I didn't go home with a bruise then I didn't think I'd done a good day's work."
Your character has been on the wrong side of the law. Have you ever had any brushes with the law yourself?
"No only speeding! I think we can all say that, can't we?"
Your character also had his top off quite a lot. Can you run through what you had to do in the gym to prepare?
"If you notice I don't speak much when I'm topless because I'm straining to hold my stomach in. No, not really, I did a bit of boxing with Joel Beckett. He's a very good mate of mine, he lives around the corner, so we used to drag each other down the gym and beat seven shades of s**t out of each other. But most of it was the classic 'Are we ready to go? OK I'll just do a few press ups before the scene starts!' It's very flattering when people talk about when I have my top off, but its not really something I pursue actively. I haven't been to the gym in four months! I haven't been since the show started! Shhh!"
The show is very cosmo, with scenes set in locations all around the globe. But is it right that all those foreign locations were foreign locations on screen only, and you never actually left Liverpool?
"No, we never left Liverpool unfortunately. It was one of those classics where you get the script and go 'Wicked, we're gonna go to Marakesh and Barcelona!' I had the joy of sitting in on some auditions as well and watching people come in and go 'read the script, love it, so are we gonna go and film this in Paris?' and we go 'no, its in Liverpool!' and their little faces would go 'Oh, right... s**t!'. But, yeah I think thats the only way it can work, there's no way we'd have been able to shoot it, we'd have spent all our time on a plane!"
You're on to The Caretaker next. Do you prefer doing theatre or doing on-screen work?
"I don't have a preference, actually. At the moment obviously all my energies are going towards the theatre, so that's a different kind of skill and getting my voice working and all that kind of stuff. But it depends on the project. At the moment it's not really about what sort of genre I'm doing, it's more about the project and that happens to be theatre, so we'll see."
Money really doesn't matter then?
"Not really, I find that if you chase money then I would have stayed where I was (at EastEnders). But no, I've never really been influenced by money, I go where the good work is. Ask me again in five years when I'm skint and I'll probably give you a different answer but right now it's not about the money. Although don't say that to Bill (Boyes, producer)!"
Are you still in contact with any of the EastEnders crowd?
"Yeah, Joel Beckett (Jake Moon) and I have just registered and set up a production company, called North8 and we are having meetings with people and doing stuff so obviously he's a very good friend of mine. And I keep in contact with Cliff Parisi (Minty Peterson) who lives around the corner from me, and 'Tish I speak to occasionally, but I haven't seen her for a while."
Are you going to any of the leaving dos?
"I went in to see Joel's last day of filming, which was actually the first time I'd been back, so that was kind of strange, but no I don't think so. I'm off now, working for the rest of the year, so I don't think I'll even be in London."
Do you feel you left EastEnders at the right time? And do you still watch the show?
"I've watched the show a little bit, but not much - only when mates of mine are doing big stories, just for support really. It's an interesting thing really, because being in something four times a week, people just tend to familiarise you with that role, and I think it's more about that, and it'll take me a long time to shed those skins. But I have to say, at the moment, it's all going very well. It's not all about high profile work, I'd quite happily go and hide in a theatre somewhere because it's more about the work than it is about being famous, which doesn't really mean much to me."
If this goes to series, is the romance between your character and Anna Madeley's going to blossom or are we going to have the close sexual tension that they have had in previous series of this genre?
"I don't know. I think once you get two people together in a show you kind of lose the energy and the excitement, and I always find it's much more fascinating watching people fumble around each other than it is to actually see them together. For me it's always the death knell, it's always jumping the shark. When they got together in Moonlighting, it all went a bit t**s up as far as I was concerned."
Do you want to do any more love scenes?
"Absolutely not! It's a hard job and someone has to do it! I'm sure we'll find ways of making it work. The one thing that interested me when I read the script is that they got together in the first scene and then it got twisted, and I think that's an interesting dynamic - to see two people who have actually had sex together and have crossed the boundary of "I wonder what it's like", and then to go back to the beginning again. I think further down the line, if we get to do some more, that's something I think we're going to have a lot of fun looking into and playing with. I think psychologically it's quite interesting how people are, because they can be very cruel when you've done something like that, and I think that's an interesting dynamic."
The Outsiders airs Tuesday (October 3) at 9pm on ITV1
More: TV
