Mark Addy has confessed he thought the Atlantis casting directors had got the wrong person when they offered him the part of Hercules.

The Full Monty star – who also recently played a policeman in ghost story Remember Me with Michael Palin – plays the action hero in the hit BBC drama, but admitted he looks for something different in all his parts.

Mark revealed: “I try to look for something that’s a little out of the ordinary really. The role in Remember Me, although he was a policeman, I thought that was the least important fact about him. He was a bloke who’d lost his family and his mojo, and he was on the verge of losing his marbles.

Mark Addy as Hercules in Atlantis (BBC)
Mark Addy as Hercules in Atlantis (BBC)

“But with Atlantis, they said, ‘We want you to play Hercules’ and I said, ‘Are you sure you’ve got the right person?’ But there’s more to him than you expect, and that’s what I like about it.”

And at 51, Mark is still looking for roles that will teach him something new.

He said: “I look for parts and scripts that interest me and are a little bit different, where I feel like I could bring something to that project in whatever way. It’s always interesting and they’re always different, that’s the nice thing. You’re learning something new all the time. As long as you keep on learning… if you don’t learn anything from it, it’s probably time to stop!”

:: Atlantis series 2, part 1 is out now on DVD and Blu-ray.