TIME OUT MAGAZINE

'Brotherhood', Monday, 11pm, FX

Although in box office terms he's up there with Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson, having played Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, Jason Isaacs is rarely recognised. 'I think publicity spoils things for viewers; but then again, the higher profile you have, the more work opportunities you get.'

Isaacs is known for playing 'complicated' men. In Leo Regan's recent, intensely affecting docudrama 'Scars', Isaacs was electrifying as a violent London criminal trying to turn his life around. 'After that, I started to wonder whether a smart person wouldn't pack up and leave for the wilderness of New Zealand,' says Isaacs, who lives in Queen's Park. 'I thought: London's
full of people like this. I feared for my two girls and my missus.'

But Isaacs went to Toronto instead to take the lead role in 'The State Within ', a six-part psychological thriller for the BBC by Lizzie Mickery and Daniel Percival, to be broadcast later in October. He plays the British ambassador to the US, Mark Brydon. ' "The State Within" is a throwback to when people made more complicated and interesting things,' says Isaacs. 'It presumes a certain knowledge and that the audience might have read a newspaper or two.'
The relationship between Britain and America starts disintegrating when a British Muslim is responsible for a giant explosion and soon Brydon realises he can trust no one. 'Usually I'm drawn to extremes,' says Isaacs. 'Mark Brydon is the nearest I've got to playing a white-bread hero and I found it difficult. I spent a lot of time with the writers hammering out an emotional arc. Ordinarily with a good guy, things just happen to them and they react. I don't know how to do that, I needed something to act.'

He's certainly not a good guy in this week's new series 'Brotherhood', which FX publicised last week by throwing £1,000 worth of fivers into the air in Covent Garden. Showtime's complex portrait of small-town America, which has been hailed in the US as 'the great chronicle of American working life', centres around the Caffee brothers. Isaacs plays Michael Caffee, who's just returned to
Providence, Rhode Island after seven years on the run. In his absence his little brother Tommy (Jason Clarke) has built a small political empire. 'Brotherhood' is said to be based on the true story of James 'Whitey' Bulger, but Isaacs says reports that the Irish community were annoyed by the portrayal are wildly exaggerated. 'They love it. And the critical response has been phenomenal. They 've been using words of praise that even your mum would be embarrassed to use.'

It's well-deserved: 'Brotherhood' is another example of an American drama series that could run and run. It's not neat and prescriptive, but exciting in its unpredictability. It assumes its audience will be willing to do a bit of assimilation work, especially in the first episode, where it introduces us to
multiple characters at a fast pace. 'What grown-ups want to see is someone saying one thing and meaning another, with an entirely different agenda that we 're not aware of,' Isaacs says.

'The State Within' will be aired at the end of October on BBC1.
 

*Courtesy of Sue who forwarded this bit to me, thanks!*