Coyle: Hollywood not a mecca for me

Brendan Coyle has insisted he won't be following some of his fellow Brits to LA anytime soon.

The British actor's star is rising as a result of his portrayal of brooding valet John Bates in Downton Abbey, but he revealed he doesn't really feel the lure of Hollywood.

He said: "It's never been this kind of mecca for me, America, the way it is for some actors, I don't really get that. I've done plays on Broadway a couple of times and loved being in New York and working there but I've never filmed anything in the States so I'd be curious as to that, but again it's all about the writing and all about the parts, it's not about Hollywood.

"It doesn't mean anything to me."

The third series of Downton is coming up, but Brendan, 48, can next be seen in new Sky1 comedy Starlings.

While the premise of an oddball extended family rubbing along together in a detached Derbyshire home immediately struck a chord, he decided a change in direction would also stave off being typecast.

Brendan, who co-stars with Lesley Sharp in the show, said: "I like to think I didn't conscientiously go, 'I'm going to do this simply because it's very different', but around about the time this came along I was offered a couple of other 'moody men' - moody man in a cloak, moody man with a knife - and I thought, 'Just be around funny people for a while'."

:: Starlings starts on Sky1 on Sunday, May 13.