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Mackenzie Crook has played all sorts of different characters but they’ve all had one thing in common – a full head of hair.

Gareth in The Office had a bowl cut. Ragetti in Pirates of the Caribbean sported long locks and a big moustache, while Andy in Detectorists had floppy hair tucked under headphones.

So it was with some trepidation that the actor, 46, decided to take on the role of Druid leader Veran in Sky Atlantic’s epic historical series Britannia.

Because right from the off, he knew the hair would have to go.

“I’d always imagined, for the last 20 years, that something would come along and it would be the right time to shave my head,” says Mackenzie.

(Image: Sky)

“And hearing about the make-up on this job and knowing if they were to put a bald cap on me that would be an extra hour in the chair, I thought ‘OK, I’ll save myself that hour and shave it’.

“It felt like a rite of passage.”

Despite having to keep it shaved for the full six months of filming, the actor never got used to his striking new look.

(Image: BBC)

“For the whole time, I’d be walking past a mirror and I’d have forgotten. It was massive, it dominated my life.”

And he wasn’t the only one to find his transformation somewhat disturbing.

“My daughter cried,” he reveals, referring to Scout, aged nine. “I took her aside and said, ‘You know I’m gonna have to shave my head,’ and she was so upset.

(Image: Sky)

“But she soon got used to it. Although it is a strange thing to have a shaved head – people react very strongly to it.”

This is no doubt because those who lose their hair suddenly are often having medical treatment like chemotherapy.

So spare a thought for Mackenzie’s mother, who hadn’t heard anything about her son’s upcoming role.

“I thought I’d told everyone about it – but I forgot to tell my mum,” he admits sheepishly. “I went to visit her and I had a beanie on and as I stepped in I took it off and she yelped.

“She had jumped to the conclusion there was some treatment I must be having and had bravely not told her.

“So it’s an odd thing. It was nice to grow my hair back.”

When we meet, Mackenzie’s blond locks are almost ­shoulder-length. But there’s been a full year’s worth of growth since filming on Britannia ended, and the actor says he would happily face the clippers again for a second series.

“I’d do it all again because I love this show – it’s a small sacrifice to be involved in something like this,” he adds.

The dad-of-two reckons he got the role as he’d worked with writer Jez Butterworth before in play Jerusalem.

“As soon as I saw his name I knew that I would want to do it,” he says.

“I’m usually offered smaller character roles, comic roles, so the opportunity to play this enigmatic, charismatic leader of the Druids, I couldn’t pass up.”

(Image: WireImage)

He was only offered it, however, three weeks before filming started.

“I imagine I wasn’t the first choice but I’m not going to ask too many questions about that,” he laughs. “As far as I’m concerned, the role is mine.”

In 43AD, Veran is all-powerful because both the native Celts and invading Romans are desperate to keep in with the Druids. As the wild-eyed holy man, Mackenzie gets to flex a few acting muscles we haven’t seen before.

Tattooed to the hilt and with painful-looking finger piercings, he is shown at one point removing a man’s beating heart.

(Image: WireImage)

Mackenzie says: “It’s horrifying and brutal and violent. At that time, death was a big part of everyday life. You’d see it all around, man being cruel to man.

“But you don’t feel like you’re in a massacre when you’re filming and the art department guy turns up cheerfully carrying a head and pops it down and squirts a bit of blood.”

Getting ready for each day on set was a lengthy process, however, with the actor getting up hours before everyone else for make-up

“I’ve had big prosthetic jobs before but this I had to sit through 26 times,” he says. “It took four hours each time.”

The entire experience is a far cry from the gentle and much-loved BBC4 comedy Detectorists, where his character Andy scours the fields of Sussex for bits of metal treasure with his best mate Lance, played by Toby Jones.

He is very proud of the series, which he wrote, directed and starred in, but says the recent third run was definitely the last.

“I’ve got other things I want to do,” he explains. “I’ve found this discipline in recent years, to write, and I’ve got a backlog of ideas I’m ­hopefully going to be able to do.” He is coy about his next project, but does reveal it will be a film for children that he is very excited about.

Mackenzie, who lives in North London with former advertising executive wife Lindsay and their two children – Scout and Jude, 15 – says he is glad the entertainment industry is changing in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

“It’s kind of scary just how quickly it snowballed, but it can only be good,” he says thoughtfully.

(Image: Disney)

“I honestly don’t think I’ve worked on something where this has been going on, I’ve never been aware of it.”

He now hopes that Britannia, available as a box set, proves to be a returner – not least because he would like to see how his own character gets killed off.

“Fingers crossed that people go for this because there’s so much more to be done,” he continues. “Ten years after the Roman invasion, the Druids were wiped out and then there’s the Boudicca story to come as well.

“In this series the Druids are all powerful and no one will defy them, so it would be interesting to see their fall from grace.”

Having appeared in Game of Thrones, he understands the comparisons between the two shows. “There’s no doubt that Britannia will appeal to a lot of people who watched Game of Thrones because of that epic scale and all the brutality of those times.

(Image: ITV)

“Ours is set in a historical period in the real world but it’s a ­fictitious story, so it still has that fantasy air about it.”

The most difficult thing about the role was overcoming his fear of heights.

“I’m sat on the edge of a precipice, above this chasm in the Czech Republic, and it was kind of terrifying,” he says.

At the time Mackenzie was harnessed but, due to his vertigo, he found the scenes terrifically hard.

“Once the cameras are rolling, the adrenaline kicks in and I can act like someone who’s not scared. I was up there convulsing and going crazy as Veran – but as soon as they said ‘cut’ I’d be clinging to the rocks.”

He had to give himself a stern talking to, saying: “I’ve got to do this – it’s my job. I can’t refuse to do something, I’m an actor for god’s sake.”

As for the heart-ripping torture scene, he laughs: “It’s not for the faint-hearted!

“Don’t watch it because you think it’s going to be The Office 2.

“Hopefully people will be surprised by what I do in it and they won’t have seen me do something like this before.”