Jamie Dornan relishes playing dark characters

Jamie Dornan jumped at the chance to play a menacing character in \'Death And Nightingales\'.

The 36-year-old actor reunited with \'The Fall\'s Allan Cubitt for the BBC programme - which is based on Eugene McCabe\'s novel of the same name - to take for the role of Liam Ward, and has opened up about how portraying such a complex person was refreshing.

The \'Fifty Shades Freed\' star told RadioTimes magazine: "There\'s a lot about Liam that is hard to work out ... the sort of manipulation and the darkness that he possesses is something that I relish, you know; I think a lot of actors relish the idea of that."

\'Death And Nightingales\', based in the Fermanagh countryside in 1885, was a three part series that followed the story of Beth Winters (Ann Skelly) as she runs away from her everyday life with Liam (Dornan) on her 25th birthday. Desperate to get away from her tough life with Protestant landowner stepfather Billy (Rhys), Beth\'s need to escape leads to devastating consequences.

The series was set during The Troubles - a period of conflict between Catholics and Protestants - and Jamie says his atheist upbringing in Holywood, Northern Ireland, influenced his part.

He said: "You can\'t have grown up in Northern Ireland in the time that I did and not be affected by The Troubles.

"I think I have a good understanding of it from both sides.

"I\'m an atheist, and I always was [an atheist] growing up.

"I\'ve never really felt that I\'ve belonged to either side, and a lot of that was driven because of the situation there."

Jamie previously said he was "thrilled" to work with Allan again.

He said: "I\'m thrilled to be reunited with Allan and his brilliant scripts to play such an intriguing character like Liam Ward and to return to Northern Ireland and BBC Two."

\'Death And Nightingales\' concluded on BBC Two on Wednesday night (12.12.18).