Ray Winstone had big doubts about going nude at 52

Ray Winstone had big doubts about going nude at 52
Ray Winstone had big doubts about going nude at 52 (Image credit: PA Archive/PA Photos)

Ray Winstone has admitted he had a few qualms about the sex scenes in his one-off drama Compulsion. The actor plays the chauffeur of a wealthy Indian family in the ITV drama, who gets into a dark, obsessive sexual relationship after asking the daughter to sleep with him in turn for him making the problem of her looming arranged marriage 'disappear'. The actor, who described his character as 'a very dangerous man', said: "There were moments when I thought, 'let someone else do this' - I suppose I had reservations about getting my kit off at 50." He went on: "But in a way, that's what makes it, really, because that's what we are like. There's very few of us who have got six packs and look all right. It could be the guy next door - and that's the thing about it. The monster could be anyone." For all his fears about getting naked, the bedroom scenes aren't actually that explicit. "I could say, 'yeah, there's lots of titillation, watch it', but it's not like that at all," said the 52-year-old. "It's kind of like violence when you don't see it, but you know it's there. "I think it becomes quite beautiful in a way, but the undertone of that is the horror of the manipulation, because it's a manipulation of someone." *Compulsion screens on ITV1 on Monday, May 4*

Patrick McLennan

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.