Philip Glenister reprises his role as Reverend Anderson in supernatural drama Outcast. He talks to Jeananne Craig about faith, his troubled character and why he longs for more Life On Mars repeats

Some actors make it a badge of honour to do their own stunts. Philip Glenister isn't one of them.

He plays Reverend Anderson in Outcast, a supernatural show with its fair share of action, exorcisms and blood, but he's happy to leave the more challenging stuff to his stunt double, Duke.

"There's one scene where I have to sort of jump in a lake at night, which wasn't much fun. They said, 'So how do you feel about doing it?' I just said, 'Duke, what's your swimming like?'" confesses the 54-year-old, looking suitably relaxed as he reclines on a plush hotel sofa, nursing a cuppa and an electronic cigarette.

"Me and Reg E [Cathey, who plays police head Chief Giles] are at an age where we're like, 'We'll just go and have a coffee; give us a shout when you've made us look marvellous'."

He'll do the odd driving scene. "You're sitting down for that," he explains.

"But anything involving horses now? Forget it. And anything involving heights or smashing at the ground, somebody else can do that."

Based on the Outcast comic book series, and created by the Walking Dead's Robert Kirkman, the show follows Kyle Barnes (Patrick Fugit of Gone Girl), who has been plagued by demonic possession all his life. Kyle has embarked on a journey to find answers, alongside Glenister's whiskey-swilling, Deep South preacher, Rev Anderson.

In series two, the stakes are "very much upped", says Glenister, who's best known for playing DCI Gene Hunt in the hugely successful Life On Mars and its follow-up, Ashes To Ashes. There may also be more than meets the eye to Sidney, a sinister character played by Brent Spiner.

"The threat, this possession thing, is taking over the town, and is basically a much, much bigger threat than we all thought it was in the first place; and the character of Sidney is not necessarily the sum of his parts. It turns out he's actually not working on his own, either," the star reveals.

"There's a point in the season when the three of us - me and Kyle and Giles - are forced to come together, and we have to do something to counter this."

The Reverend, however, is still battling some worsening personal demons of his own.

"He's in a pretty dark place," says Glenister. "He really reaches rock bottom, to the point where he's living out of the back of his car. Everybody thinks he's crazy, he's been booted out of the church, his relations with Kyle are very strained. Really, the only person he's got in his life at this point is his girlfriend Patricia [Melinda McGraw] and Chief Giles."

When he was preparing for the role, Glenister found inspiration while watching a 'celebrity' evangelist on US TV, noting his magnetism and the power he commanded over the audience.

"It's interesting playing somebody who is so hell-bent on preaching the message. Ultimately, he's not a fraud, the Reverend, and I think a lot of these evangelicals and TV set are out and out fraudsters. But it's interesting because we seem to live in an age when there are lots of fraudsters around in various guises. No names mentioned..."

The actor, who has two daughters with his wife, actress Beth Goddard, isn't a big fan of organised religion.

But he says: "I don't have a problem with people who have faith, it's each to their own."

"I think it's important that people have a spirituality. I don't think you need a badge of religion to do good things or to be a decent person, but some people use and have their faith as a crux for whatever reason, and I think non-believers are quite envious of that."

Despite his convincing performance in the show, the Middlesex-born star confesses he isn't much of a 'believer' in the supernatural, either. "I'm agnostic about it. I wouldn't be arrogant enough to say, 'It's all hokum', but I'd find it surprising if there was anything."

Outcast has amassed plenty of fans since it started airing, but it's another 'other worldy' show, BBC detective series Life On Mars, that Glenister gets approached about most in the street - despite having had plenty of other high-profile work since it finished airing in 2007 (including the Sky1 series Mad Dogs; he's meeting his co-stars from it for a night out after our interview).

"It's part and parcel of the journey, I suppose," Glenister says. "It was quite long ago now, but obviously it had such an impact with people as a show. It'd be nice if the BBC bloody repeated it every now and again, I'd get some repeat fees!"

With perfect timing, his phone begins to ring, the word 'Agent' flashing up on the screen.

Switching it off, he continues: "I'm sure every time Daniel Craig does a job he'll get asked about James Bond; Benedict Cumberbatch will get one about Sherlock, and David Tennant will get one about Doctor Who. People on the street keep saying, 'When's Life On Mars going to be back on?'"

In a line worthy of his straight-talking alter ego Gene Hunt, Glenister adds: "It's like, 'It hasn't been on for 10 years love, that's a clue'."

  • The second series of Outcast begins on Fox on Monday, April 3