You’re nicked: Ray Winstone on remaking The Sweeney

Back in the 1970s, at the dawn of his career, 18-year-old Raymond Winstone landed a bit part in TV’s The Sweeney.

It was what’s known in the trade as “a cough and a spit”. His character didn’t even have a name – just credited as “2nd Youth”.

But in 1976 it was enough for a fledgling actor to be seen, albeit fleetingly, in one of the UK’s most popular shows alongside John Thaw as two-fisted London detective Jack Regan.

Flash forward 36 years and Winstone is established as one of Britain’s premier tough guys in film and TV. In truth he doesn’t do that much television anymore. He doesn’t need to, being in demand for any number of big-budget movies. When the call comes from Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese you don’t say no.

Some of the films have been good – The Departed. Some bad – King Arthur. Some indifferent – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Yet clearly Winstone has travelled a long way from bit parts in forgotten TV shows. Except, of course, that The Sweeney has never been forgotten.

A cult show that has enjoyed an enhanced reputation since it aired in the ’70s, it has finally reached the screen after a tortuous series of mis-starts. Nick Love is the director. And who did he cast as a very 21st century Jack Regan? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ray Winstone.

“I was in Kavanagh QC with John,” recalls Winstone.

“I was rehearsing Nil by Mouth at the time, I was [also] doing a play at the Royal Court and I had a really bad day on Kavanagh. I had this long scene and I couldn’t remember a line. I was dead. It was my body saying ‘I’ve had enough’, you know? It’s a confidence killer.

“I had a great director who said, ‘Don’t worry about it. Tomorrow’s another day.’ And John Thaw was terrific about it because I made the day very long. And the next day I came back and I was as right as ninepence.

“He was a very special man, a fantastic actor – an icon. That was one of the things about doing this when we came to do it.

“I thought ‘How do you follow that? How do you try and make that better or even as good?’ You can’t. It’s impossible. So you have to reinvent it and make it your own. It’s the only way it could possibly work.”

And it’s been a long time coming. Winstone gleefully refers to himself as “a 55-year-old fat man”.

He was in his late 40s when the film was first mooted. Back then, in 2006, names like Tom Hardy and Michael Fassbender were suggested as his sidekick, George Carter.

As big studios lost interest and the film’s budget got smaller it was clear that Hardy and Fassbender – now the brightest of the bright new stars – had been slowly slipping – and we now know definitely – well out of reach. Instead the role went to another Young Turk, rapper, soul crooner and filmmaker Ben Drew, aka Plan B.

Winstone is fulsome in his praise of Drew. He’s neither as tall as Fassbender nor as bulky as Hardy but he brings youth, energy and dynamism to the double-act with Winstone.

“I turn up on the film not 100 per cent sure of what I’m gonna do or how I’m gonna go about it,” says Winstone. “But you’re thinking about it all the time and you don’t really know you are. People like Ben [are] so far in front of what we were when we were that age.

“It ups your game, number one, and it kinda reminds you of the basics that you forgot about.”

While Drew has been seen on screen in Harry Brown and Adulthood, the fact is, he is still a newcomer. Winstone, clearly, was impressed.

“We had many times when we’d sit down and just have a chat about what’s happening in the world. I was lucky enough to have a kid with me who is actually really intellectually up with what’s going on in the world and puts his money where his mouth is. It just kinda livens you up a bit, you know, and brings you into the 21st century.”

Writer/director Nick Love peppers his film with that geezer/laddish vernacular that has underlined his previous films like Outlaw and The Firm. It also delves into modern police corruption. For action fans there is lots of gunplay.

“The thing about shooting guns or anything to do with props, you’ve gotta look like you know what you’re doing with them. It’s called acting,” he smiles.

“You don’t have to be a gunslinger. The camera does that and you do it in a second. You trust your director for that and if you’re not right, he’ll tell you. And he will tell you, believe me!

“Playing with guns… you revert to a little boy sometimes but they’re not great things to play with. It’s just making them look real instead of all that lark [he mimes firing a pistol sideways like in Hollywood gangster films]. Dunno what that is. You’d break your wrist if you fired a gun like that.”

Winstone has entered the ranks of the old guard now. He’s also the head of a dynasty: daughter Jaime, 27, is also an in-demand actress. The pair worked together on the feature Elfie Hopkins. So it’s odd to see Winstone Snr with his belly and grey hair romping with co-star Hayley Atwell. Fat and 55 or not, he’s a sex symbol.

“I dunno what is appealing to women. I think it’s the way you treat women that makes you sexy, if you like,” he says, rubbing his bearded chin.

“You gotta be genuine. You gotta be a bit of a gentleman and a bit of a rogue at the same time. But if you try and set out to be that you’re never gonna achieve it. I don’t know how that works. Ask ladies. Ladies are the ones who know how that works. I don’t. I haven’t got a clue. But if I am – fantastic. I’ll love every minute of it.”