The actor and former footballer talks about grief and the countryside, sobriety and humility, overloading himself and playing tough but fair

People think I’m a city boy, but I’m a nature-lover. We lived in Bushey until I was seven, then we moved to a little village called Bedmond, in the countryside just outside Watford. Now, I live on a farm in West Sussex and I find it hard to leave. I prefer to talk to my dog than to a human being.

My parents split when I was 12. It happens all the time now, but in those days it was hard. I went my own way after that: teenage rebellion, rowing with my old man. At 15, I packed my bags and went to Pangbourne, washing pots and pans at Bradfield College.