The cast also includes Bill Bailey, Celia Imrie and Colin Salmon.

OrJekyll & Hydeand thenThe Jungle Book.

How do you go about choosing your projects?

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Generally, take the best job that youve been offered.

Is it important to you to try and choose different projects?

Have you actively tried to avoid being typecast?

No, because every actor is typecast.

And you have to accept that from the get-go, I think.

Um, because theres so many actors.

So what appealed to you about this role, inThe Jungle Book?

No make-up, no costume, and coming to a studio for a morning.

So, quick in-and-out.

What do you think makesThe Jungle Bookso timeless?

Why do we keep re-adapting it?

Yeah, um… why do you think it is?

I dont know really, I suppose its a classic British story of exploration and the unknown?

Youre playing Kaa, the snake.

Whats your version like?

He doesnt eat Mowgli, so that makes him less of a villain.

But he likes to eat troops of monkeys, so…

If you like monkeys, you wont like Kaa.

Do you get to do any serpentine hypnosis?

No, just a lot of s sounds.

Kaa is probably most associated with Sterling Holloways fabulous hissing voice from the sixties film.

Did you rewatch that at all, or look to it for inspiration?

No, but I remember it from when I was ten years old.

And then, watched it subsequently when my daughter was growing up.

So, I suppose thats inevitably in the back of your mind.

And, how is your approach different when you take an audio role?

How do you get into the mind of a snake from the confines of a recording studio?

Its like a doing a radio play, and you I dont know how to answer that, really.

You read the lines, and the character description, and hit all the s sounds in every sentence.

And hope for the best.

I dont know what youre talking about.

Oh, apparently some of the sales are going to go to animal charities.

I didnt know that until then.

But yeah, all for that!

How did you get involved with this one?

I have no idea.

however long ago it was, and you turn up at the studio and just bing, bang!

You obviously know more about this than I do.

Whats the recording process been like?

Do you record your lines separately, or do you all record in a studio together?

You do it together, we just did it this morning.

Um, with Colin Salmon and Bill Bailey and Lizzie, the actress whos playing Mowgli when hes young.

And you stand around a microphone and read it, you dont even have to learn it.

You do three or four takes and then youre done.

Is that a good process for you?

Working with other actors is always a bonus.

You dont have to worry about hitting a mark or the lighting being right…

Thats true.

Its very very quick, in and out.

And theres no hanging around.

You dont have to go on location, the hours are very civilized.

I think Netflix changed that.

The common denominator is stories, thats the thing that still grips people, whichever way you put it.

If something has a good story, people will watch or read it.

Are you the jot down to binge-watch something between jobs, then?

Not even between jobs, during jobs!

Im a TV addict.

Is that something youd be interested to try, then?

To step into a Netflix realm, or something similar?

Yeah, Id love to.

If I get offered one, Ill tell you!

And what can you tell us about your role in theJekyll & Hydethats coming to ITV?

Im playing the head of the Secret Service.

Its about Jekylls grandson, and so its set in the 1930s.

And so, Charlie Higson has taken licence to include monsters and vampires and all those genre horror elements.

That sounds really cool.

And what else is on your slate at the moment?

Im going on holiday.

Were big fans of your books here at Den Of Geek, are you working on any more?

Oh, thank you!

Um, I loved working with Matt Smith.

And I remember it being very very cold, in Cardiff, in a warehouse.

And yeah, it was a Christmas episode.

And I get killed off.

Have they told you that youre definitely killed off?

Is there no way back?

Well, Ive never heard from them again.

Did you two talk about that at all?

Have a good summer, have a good holiday, have a good life.

The Jungle Book: The Mowgli Storiesis available from Audible, here.