Sam Heughan is offensively handsome. In character as Scottish highlander Jamie Fraser in television series Outlander, he looks like an advert for Scotland's tourist board, all burly and most often seen in a kilt riding a horse. Be warned; there is a lot of knee porn in this show.

Amazon Prime Instant Video

His star is set to rise considerably as tonight Outlander makes its UK debut on Amazon Prime.


Based on the books by US author Diana Gabaldon, the show is already wildly popular in America. Its first episode in August 2014 attracted five million viewers and has caused an increase in visitors to Scotland, according to the BFI. It focuses on female protagonist Claire (Caitriona Balfe), who, after just getting married, is transported from post World War II to 18th Century Scotland. She's then rescued by a Highland rebel amid a war with the English.

Rex

Adapted by Ronald Moore, who wrote and produced Battlestar Galactica, the series has received a lot of positive attention for its sex scenes, in which cameras roll over the best parts of both leads' physiques - both man and woman. Ladies, you are encouraged to stare, sit back and enjoy in the way in which our male counterparts so often do.

And it's not only the show that encourages gender equality. So does its indisputably hunky hero Heughan (mind explodes).


"Outlander is progressive in the way it looks at women," Heughan told GLAMOUR. "It's wonderful that it's being seen that way, but it's such a shame that this is new. Part of the reason it's been popular is maybe because we have a female protagonist who is very strong; that's unusual but it shouldn't be. I hope people look at it and enjoy it."

Amazon Prime Instant Video

While the sex scenes are explicit, they are not gratuitous and, Heughan says, the're just a way of showing the growth of the relationship between the leads. Also unusually for a female character, Claire is the more sexually experienced of the two - in fact, Jamie is a virgin. Not that he's not had much action before (at one point, he tells Claire when she asks him how he learnt to kiss so artfully, "I said I was a virgin, not a monk"), he's just never gone the whole way.

"There are other programmes where there are sex scenes, but there is equal exposure between the sexes here," he sad. "It's not exposure for exposure's sake. None of us would have been happy with that. We had a lot of serious discussions with producers and writers about how those scenes should be filmed. Ultimately, if something has to be sexual should be it of the mind."


In order to see this embed, you must give consent to Social Media cookies. Open my cookie preferences.

The dynamic between the two is as compelling as looking at Jamie's pecs by firelight (sorry for the shameless ogling but this is strongly encouraged); they are both from different eras, so as you can imagine, there are differences of opinion.

"She is slightly more experienced and he is grown up for his age and has his own set of moral values," said Heughan. "She is more modern way of thinking because she's from a different time. There is one scene where she does something wrong and he punishes her for it - he spanks her. In that period of time, that was the right thing to do. You obviously wouldn't do that now, but then it was acceptable. It's a battle of two time periods, but they always come to a conclusion over it."

Heughan's upbringing sounds like something from Outlander - he was raised in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland in converted stables in a castle grounds. There were four people in his class until he was 14, so friends were few and far between. He did a lot of travelling and eventually decided on acting and landed a place at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

He likes playing period roles, and has previously served as a young Alexander the Great in the 2010 film of the same name and also a bereft husband in 2014's Emulsion, which is part set in the 60s.

"I like to have something to base a role on," said Heughan. "We can use Diana's books and historical sources. The idea of playing a Scotsman and having a sword and a horse also really appealed. Jamie has a long interesting journey - could I do it?"

Perhaps due to its fantasy thread and heated sex scenes, Outlander has been likened to Game of Thrones - a comparison Heughan shrugs off.

"It's fair enough," he said. "Outlander is based on a group of books; there's a slight fantasy element to it, but ours is authentic - we try to stick to historical accuracy as possible. Ours is about a small group of people and a core relationship, rather than big armies."


The actor has already attracted a strong fan base, named the Heughlians, who between them have raised a impressive $29,342 for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research - Heughan's charity of choice.

Despite this, he seems blissfully unaware of the fame that is sure to beset him soon. "No, I don't feel prepared for all that," he said. "I'm just excited to see how it goes down."

Follow @ella__alexander on Twitter.