Alun: Filming Garrow's Law was b****y hard work!

Alun Armstrong has said that filming for Garrow's Law was "b****y hard work!" The New Tricks actor stars as an 18th century attorney John Southouse in the drama and said the conditions were almost unbearable in the show's 'courtroom'. He explained: "We filmed all of the courtroom scenes in a converted bonded whisky warehouse in Dumbarton, Scotland with no air conditioning - you'd think normally a Scottish summer would be cool but there was a heat wave so it was baking hot." The filming took eight weeks and Armstrong admits it was probably the hardest work he'd done for a long time. "You might have to do 20 takes to get one little piece... It was b****y hard work!" And after such a punishing schedule, Armstrong was keen to take a break - but only for 24 hours! Alun said: "At the end of the filming I had one day off." Now the actor returns to film the next series of New Tricks and he explained that he'll continue working as an actor for as long as possible. He said: "At my age all of my friends who aren't actors are stopping working and asking, 'When are you going to retire?' but if you're an actor you don't retire, you just get picky or stop getting offered as much work!" Garrow's Law: Tales From The Old Bailey begins Sunday November 1, on BBC1 at 9pm.

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.