

This interview was first published on May 1, before Ian McShane's appearance on Game of Thrones.

Although Ian McShane has lived in Venice Beach, California, since 1980, he still thinks of Manchester as home.

He visits the city as often as he can because his mother, who is 95, still lives here, and he is a fanatical Man United fan (which is not surprising when you consider his father, Harry McShane, played for the club back in the Fifties, when Matt Busby was manager).

Raffish and compact in jeans, pumps and zip-up jacket, and with thick, mostly dark hair, Hollywood teeth and a mahogany tan, the 73-year-old actor neither looks nor dresses his age. And though he is friendly and open, he still retains some of the angry young man qualities that have characterised his performances over the years.