JOE DEMPSIE is fast becoming one of the faces of his generation.

However, he’s recently been less recognisable thanks to his latest role in New Worlds, Channel 4’s drama set during the turbulent 1680s.

“On the first day of the shoot the makeup lady tentatively asked, ‘How attached are you to your hair?’ I said ‘I know what you are asking and go on then’, so she shaved it all off to a number one cut and then fitted my wigs,” he laughs. “At the moment I look quite Jarhead!”

Fans of E4 series Skins will probably still recognise him for his performance as the popular Chris Miles, but more recently he’s challenged himself with more varied roles in Game of Thrones and Southcliffe.

“Every actor has an idea of what they enjoy about acting and I love the variety of playing very different parts and having very different filming experiences,” explains Dempsie.

“I have been so lucky to have had the diversity of good experiences I have had from Skins to This Is England to Game of Thrones, then Southcliffe.

“For a year or two after Skins I got offered a lot of ‘Chris’ roles, but I wanted to move forwards and thankfully I was able to and I never fell out of love with acting.”

In New Worlds, he plays Ned, a young colonist living in New England with big choices to make as he and his friends become embroiled in trying to break free from the oppressive control of the English throne.

“Ned is a character who like all of the four young people of New Worlds is going through huge change and having to make very big decisions about where their allegiances lie,” says Dempsie.

“Ned is being primed to take over his father’s company when we meet him but he already has the seeds of moral queasiness about how his father does business.”

As we’ve seen over the past few weeks, Ned has embraced the revolutionary cause, but he’s also found love with fellow renegade Hope.

“Ned and Hope have known each other from childhood but when they both get involved in the escape of Goffe, he sees her as a woman for the first time,” reveals Dempsie. “She is very feisty and unlike other women he has encountered, so he is pretty taken with her.

“He is devastated when he returns to Hadley and find that his father has betrayed him and pushed Hope to marry someone else although ultimately that doesn’t stop them. It has been fun to explore playing young people who are genuinely effecting change.”

In the final episode of the series, Ned finally tells Hope he wants them to be together – but any plans for the future must be put on hold while they find a way to keep fugitive Beth hidden.

Later, the lovebirds lead a group of young Bostonians fighting for their liberty while, back in England, Abe escapes from jail, renounces violence and dedicates his life to spreading Colonel Sidney’s ideas.