It’s rare for a holiday to outstay its welcome but, for Woody (Beesley), Quinn (Glenister), Baxter (Simm) and Rick (Warren), this one definitely has. No surprise given ‘highlights’ so far have involved pint-sized assassins, drug cartels and expat gangsters. Quality R&R isn’t on the menu this time around either, as creator and writer Cris Cole prepares a fresh tangle of twists to trip up the boys.

> Buy the Series 1-2 boxset on Amazon.

> Order Series 3 on DVD on Amazon.

Series 3 begins at 9pm on Tuesday 4 June on Sky1.

How good is this series?

“God, it’s fantastic. The scripts are so good. Honest to God, I feel like it has got loads of humour back again, like the first series, which I am really pleased about. It starts off where we left off last time, but then we all have to leave each other and go off on our own. It’s so mature, and so clever and beautiful.”

Is it a different pace now that we’ve fast forwarded in time?

“Yes, I think that’s inevitable. In a third series you have the opportunity to retrace your steps, look back a bit and do a bit more explanation. The first series is explosive, then people want to understand more and find out why certain things have happened, so the tempo slows down a bit for the second.

The amazing thing is the audience loved it. They loved the flashbacks, the explanations. They loved knowing more and more about it and we were really lucky that we actually built on the audience, which is fantastic. But now we’re up to all sorts of stuff again, and it’s exciting. It’s almost like four films rather than a four-part TV series. It’s absolutely epic, it looks amazing.”

How’s it been, filming in South Africa?

“It’s been absolutely amazing. This place, honestly, you can just point a camera anywhere in these locations and get a bit of dialogue going and it just looks great. I’m not just being a Humble Harry, but every other day I’ve said to the other boys, ‘We are so lucky to be here, filming this job’. The crew is amazing, and Adrian is the Governor. We love each other. We actually all care about each other a lot.”

What changes has Woody been through?

“It’s weird, but I’ve played him a lot more like me this time. The thing with acting is you just try and put as much of yourself into the character. Even if you’re playing a psychotic serial killer, you try and find something in there like the family man or some humour or something.

“With this, I don’t know if it’s where we’re at as actors, or whether it’s Chris’ brilliant writing, because he knows our characters inside out and he knows us, but whenever we get on set it all feels very natural. We know each other’s dynamics and increments. It’s the third year, so we kind of know what we’re doing.”

And without giving too much away, he is close to a young kid in this series, isn’t he?

“Yes, there’s a kid in it, he lives in the same village and Woody is close to him. I just got a vibe straight away with the actor. I love kids.

“He came to meet me in my trailer and I started showing him some drumming, built up some trust with him and made him laugh a bit. It’s funny because some of the crew said he could be a cheeky little bleeder sometimes but I didn’t see any of that! He was like a little prince around me.”

Jaime Winstone is in this series, and she’s an old friend of yours, isn’t she?

“Yes. It has been lovely having her around. I’ve known her since she was eight. She calls me Uncle Maxy, and she has told everyone I’m her godfather, although she’s designated herself as that – [her dad] Ray has argued the point that I’m not really!

“But I say to her, ‘I am, kid – secretly’. She’s an amazing girl, and she’s come on so well as an actress. On the first day I was like a peacock: I was so proud of her. She is not only a presence, but she has smashed it. She’s very professional and she is going to be a massive, massive weight to contend with, that girl. She is going to do very well.”

And your dad, Max Senior, has a part in it too?

“Yes, we got him out there, he loved that. He plays a British consulate. We’ve never done anything before but he always comes out on set to visit and he loves the boys, and the boys adore him. He’s such a great guy, my old man. He was here for two weeks.”

Are you pleased to be doing a fourth series?

“Yes, because it’s so great. I’m hoping it’s my turn to either get a bird, or get kidnapped. Normally I’m the one running around trying to save everyone, all the time!”

Where would you like it to be set?

“That’s an interesting question. It depends partly on costs and tax breaks, doesn’t it? But I’d love to go to Argentina. That’s a beautifully sexy city. It can’t just be a jolly-up, but that would work because it’s a claustrophobic city rather than this huge space we have in South Africa, so it would be a new vibe again. And then who knows, maybe bring them back to London eventually?”

> Buy the Series 1-2 boxset on Amazon.

> Order Series 3 on DVD on Amazon.

Watch the trailer…

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