Actor Andrew Lincoln gave up on Hollywood scripts to make two TV dramas in the UK. But The Teachers and This Life star, who found international fame with movie Love Actually, is about to act alongside Lauren Bacall. Steve Pratt reports.

ANDREW Lincoln sits down and apologises for what's on his top lip - a pencil-thin moustache that makes him look decidedly seedy. The actor from Teachers and This Life explains that he's "tached up" for six weeks while making a movie called These Foolish Things also starring Angelica Huston, Lauren Bacall and Terence Stamp.

"There are these really great older actors and this very interesting array of up-and-coming ingenues - and I'm in the middle with the moustache," he says.

He might well have been making US movies rather than this British-made one as his agent sent him off to Los Angeles for meetings and script readings in the wake of his appearance in last year's international rom-com hit movie Love Actually.

But Lincoln decided not to stay there, saying that so far no scripts have really intrigued him. Instead, he returned home and made two dramas that mark his debut on ITV1. As both, Whose Baby? and Lie With Me are being shown close together, there'll be no escaping him in coming weeks.

So, it is put to him, he has chosen British TV over working in America?. "I would hate to say that. The last thing I want to do is shut the door on Hollywood," he comments.

Talking to him, it becomes clear that his priorities lie elsewhere - even if his immediate concern is shooting a scene in These Foolish Things where his character, an actor turned director, directs Bacall in a scene in the movie-within-a-movie. As the veteran actress is known for her sharp tongue, he's wondering how she'll take to being given orders, even if he's only acting. "I can't wait because she's just cinema. It's very exciting," he adds.

What he and all those involved in Whose Baby? didn't realise when filming the one-off drama was just how topical its subject of fathers' rights would become. Recent protests by the Fathers For Justice group have pushed the subject into the headlines.

Lincoln plays bachelor Barry who's used by his girlfriend Karen (played by Sophie Okonedo) to get her pregnant - without him knowing. They split up and, when he discovers he has a daughter, he sets out to gain access to the child he didn't know existed. That involves putting on a tiger's costume and being raised in the air in a cherry picker crane to Karen's ninth floor flat.

That scene was one of the attractions for him, although they only had an afternoon in which to film it. "I did love the tiger suit," he says. "I was only allowed to go up once in the cherry picker and they left me up there the whole afternoon. It's not so much the height as the swing on the crane that's unsettling."

His other ITV1 role is playing a policeman for the first time in the two-part thriller Lie With Me. His detective is probing the murder of a woman and the rape of her flatmate. During the investigation, he begins an affair with the rape victim (played by Eve Best). "It was nice to play different characters over a relatively short space of time. I loved them both. It's all about who I work with, who's directing, the script and if the character appeals to me as well," says Lincoln.

"Lie With Me had a sexy, dysfunctional love affair in the middle of a strange and twisted murder and rape inquiry. To play that truthfully seemed a difficult job to do. Whose Baby? was a beautifully written story and the prospect in the final act of dressing as a tiger and getting arrested was like a dream come true."

In Lie With Me, the Lincoln bottom is bared once more in a shower scene. This has become something we've come to expect from him. "I always say that if it's got nothing to do with the plot then I will definitely do a nude scene," he jokes.

"But, I mean, who showers in swimming trunks?. It's all about making it as believable as possible. I do walk around with not many clothes on when I'm at home. I don't have any problems with it. If it's going to help the story, I will do it."

Love Actually didn't do his movie career any harm either, although he seems in no hurry to capitalise on its success in America. He will join Lesley Sharp in another ITV series, Afterlife, due to start filming next month. "If acted and directed properly, it will be very scary. It's about clairvoyancy and 'I see dead people' sort of thing. I play a psychology lecturer who's very cynical about all of that," he says.

This means he'll be missing from the new series of Teachers, which begins on C4 next week. He directed an episode in the last series and wants to do more directing in the future. He'll possibly direct a production in London's West End next year. "But I can't talk about it because we're still in the translating the script stage," he adds.

* Whose Baby? is on ITV1 on Monday at 9pm. Lie With Me is scheduled to be shown on ITV1 later this month.

Published: 21/10/2004