Stephen Graham’s role as Al Capone has been well worth waiting for. Steve Pratt reports.

SOMEONE very special asked Liverpoolborn actor Stephen Graham to play infamous gangster Al Capone in a lavish new US television series – award-winning director Martin Scorsese.

“He always said he wanted to find something for me to do and that he wanted to work with me again,” says Graham, referring to their first collaboration on 2002’s Gangs Of New York. “I’ve met him a good few times since and he always said, ‘Don’t worry, something’s going to come up’. I didn’t hear anything and then out of the blue I got a phone call from his office and it was him saying, ’Would you like to play Al Capone?’ You don’t really say no.”

So Graham plays Capone in Boardwalk Empire, which has already received huge acclaim in the US and debuts on Sky Atlantic next week.

Co-created by Scorsese and the award-winning writer of The Sopranos, Terence Winter, the series opens on the eve of Prohibition in Twenties Atlantic City, and follows the machinations of city treasurer Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (Steve Buscemi), a political fixer who’s carved out a niche as the man to see for illegal alcohol.

It’s based on the best-selling book, The Birth, High Times And Corruption Of Atlantic City, and paints a vivid picture of America in the roaring Twenties. As Nucky provides booze, jobs and cash to the city’s residents and visitors, gangster culture inspires a generation of men to turn to crime – and that includes rising star Al Capone.

“He’s a young lad trying to make it in the business,”

says Graham. “He starts out as a driver and we see him trying to grow up a little bit, and try to learn the ropes and see what it’s like to move up in that world.”

He admits he was a little tentative “with being an outsider, being someone from England playing an iconic American character”, but reveals the cast and crew embraced him from the outset.

And as you’d expect from a Scorsese production, no expense was spared in recreating the era.

“As an actor, it’s a doddle basically. All you have to do is believe what you’re saying because the set’s full of craftsmen and women who love their job and completely believe in what they’re doing and set the world up perfectly for you,” says Graham.

Despite work taking him to Hollywood, his home’s in Leicestershire with his wife and two children . He’s not tempted to make the move.

“Never, no, no no,” he says emphatically in his strong Liverpudlian accent.

It’s to his credit that he honed the Brooklyn burr of Capone with such conviction. “I’ve got a good ear for accents so it does come quite easily,” he admits.

“My voice coach was a member of the crew on Boardwalk, because he’s born and bred from Brooklyn. I like to listen to the people from the areas.”

Graham admits to being a bit of tearaway as a youngster, but that changed when he appeared in a school production.

“There was this fantastic actor called Drew Schofield who played Johnny Rotten in Sid And Nancy. He’s a lovely man and came to watch his nephew in a play I was in when I was around ten.

He had a little chat with my mum and dad afterwards and said, ‘Your lad’s got a bit of talent there, may be you should take him to the youth theatre’.

Obviously I went and I’ve never really looked back.”

His resolve has been tested along the way, particularly after playing the critically-acclaimed role of racist Combo in 2006’s This Is England. “After that I couldn’t get a job for three months,” he says.

“You go through hard times as an actor and you need skin like a rhino. I was going to pack it all in and become a youth worker because when I’m not acting I do voluntary work with the kids at the local youth centre, make little films and stuff.”

He thanks his family and close friends for not allowing him to give up. “They told me to stop being an idiot and to carry on, and it kind of turned after that.”

He’s well aware that his movies have all been worthy of an 18 certificate, which is why he signed up to do the fourth instalment of the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise, alongside Johnny Depp.

“It’s so the kids can watch something I’ve done,”

he says.

* Boardwalk Empire: Tuesday, Sky Atlantic HD, 9pm.