Stephen Tompkinson: Watching the detective... Stephen's star role takes him to the heart of darkness

Stephen Tompkinson looks a little weary.

He's just grabbed a coffee in between scenes for a new two-part detective drama being shot in Yorkshire and the effects of the intense filming schedule are etched on his face.

Based on a novel by Leeds-born crime writer Peter Robinson, it's the first time Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks has been given the TV treatment and with a possible series riding on the success of the pilot, there has been little time to relax.

"It's been pretty full-on," says the actor, sitting in an office block on the edge of Leeds city centre, which is doubling as a police station. He has just finished rehearsing a scene in which he interrogates a suspect serial killer and a few days earlier had to examine the bodies of four young girls discovered in the cellar of a seemingly ordinary semi-detached house. "That was particularly chilling. There was hardly anything said. There were three bodies wrapped in polythene and one girl playing a fresh dead body.

"Of course, you know it's only television, but it all looks incredibly real. If we're disturbed on set, hopefully that means we are doing something right."

Yorkshire has something of a history of producing small screen detectives. Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe were brought to life by Warren Clarke and Colin Buchanan, David Jason has only recently hung up Jack Frost's overcoat and last year Channel 4's adaptation of David Peace's Red Riding quartet brought the inner city policing methods of the 1970s into sharp focus.

Peter Robinson's creation is not so crushingly dark as Peace's portrayal, but Banks has his own troubles. Pressures of the job have already pushed him to the limits and forced a move from London to Yorkshire in search of a quieter life. Unsurprisingly, he finds no such refuge and with Aftermath focusing on the abduction of five teenage girls there is little in the way of light relief.

"Banks is quite a loner," says Tompkinson, dressed in Banks's practical if not entirely flattering blue suit and looking every bit the careworn detective. "I think more than any other television copper you get a real sense of how personally he takes things and how much he takes on board. He's incredibly dogged and devoted, but almost gets too involved in the case for his own good.

"Each investigation takes some of his spirit. He's like the police equivalent of a Native American Indian who believes photographs take part of the soul."

Certainly, Aftermath is something of a departure from Wild at Heart in which he plays Bristol vet Danny Trevanion who moves to a South African game park with his family. The show is in its sixth series and Tompkinson now spends six months of the year living in Cape Town.

"Over the last few years, I've become best known for working with giraffes and other animals, so it's been good to get a chance to do something different and more serious," says the actor, who first rose to fame as Damien Day in the newsroom comedy Drop the Dead Donkey.

"Aftermath was Peter's 10th book and was chosen because it is the most intense of all Banks' cases. When you've only got a two-hour pilot, you don't want to cloud the audience with too much back story. It's really about the investigation and how dealing with the macabre on a daily basis impacts on those on the frontline.

"It's certainly the most intense character I have ever played

and you do get the feeling that he's always just one step away from a complete nervous breakdown. Like a lot of good detectives he's completely addicted to his job, work constantly encroaches on his personal life, but when it comes down to it, he's also the kind of guy you'd want on your side."

Authors often have a tricky relationship with adaptations of their work, with many complaining the spirit of the original has been somehow lost in translation. Since his first DCI Banks novel was published in 1987, Robinson, like many crime writers, has acquired a peculiarly loyal following and while Tompkinson knows some readers will inevitably find fault with the drama, after he first read the script he was keen to meet the detective's creator.

"When I found out I had got the role, the first thing I did was look Peter up on the net," he says. "He now divides his time between Yorkshire and Canada. Like a lot of Canadians, he goes out to thaw for a couple of months in Tampa, so I flew out to meet him there. I just wanted to pick his brains and to find out how he saw the character of Banks.

"Of course, writing a screenplay is a very different discipline

to writing a book and some things have to change, but Banks is still very much at the heart of Aftermath. Peter has been down to the set a couple of times and he seemed to like what he saw. I hope we have done his book justice."

Produced by Left Bank Pictures, who set up camp on a piece of waste ground close to Leeds University when shooting got underway this spring, Aftermath has also been a much needed boost for a television industry hit by a series of blows in the last couple of years.

In March last year, ITV announced it was to shut its Kirkstall Road studios, the ever popular Countdown was moved to Manchester, filming of the long-running Sunday evening drama Heartbeat was suspended and Last of the Summer Wine has also recently been retired. However, for Tompkinson, who grew up in Stockton-on Tees, there is something particularly special about working in the North.

"There's so much flexibility, much more than you would ever get in London," he says. "Much of the filming has been done in Leeds, but Banks lives in the countryside and with the Dales on your doorstep you can't really go far wrong.

"There's something about the remoteness of the place that

really reflects Banks's inner life and best of all, it's only an hour up the road.

"It has been a difficult time for the industry, but when it comes to television, Yorkshire has some natural assets which are just really hard to beat."

Amid talk of cuts and production budgets being tightened, there have been fears that broadcasters will have no option but to resort to cheap television which caters only to the lowest common denominator. Perhaps in the short-term, admits Tompkinson, but ultimately those at the top of the industry will have to listen to what the viewers want.

"There is a danger of looking back at some supposed golden age of television with rose-tinted glasses," he says. "The truth is there is still a lot of good drama being made. If you look back at the history of television you can't move for crime dramas. Some might say as a genre it has been over-worked, but like hospital dramas they remain amazingly popular.

"There is a voyeuristic thrill about watching a murder and police investigation unfold. You can get involved in the whodunit and I think a good crime drama is almost a guilty pleasure.

"Aftermath is more like Prime Suspect than Midsomer Murders. Robert Murphy's adaptation is incredibly gripping, he takes you right inside Banks's head and the tension is palpable. If you start with the discovery of five bodies, it's inevitable there's a hard edge to it."

The ratings and the critics will have their say as to whether there is life for Banks after his first television outing, but Tompkinson would gladly play the chief inspector again.

DCI Banks: Aftermath begins on Monday, September 27 on ITV1.