Mackenzie Crook: “People do go on about how skinny I am - you couldn’t get away with just focusing on a woman’s size"

In an interview in this week’s Radio Times magazine to mark the upcoming second series of his comedy Detectorists, he reveals: “People do go on about how skinny I am… You couldn’t get away with just focusing on a woman’s size these days, but it seems to be all right to do that [to a man]. It makes me a bit cross sometimes.

“So when I go out, I am particularly recognisable, I think. The only person I hang out with who is more recognisable is Matt Lucas, who is recognisable from 100 yards away. And he gets it constantly… people taking photos or double-taking."

The actor, who writes and directs Detectorists, which also stars Toby Jones, adds: “People project things on to you. Gareth [his character from The Office] was an odd-looking bloke, with the hair… so therefore people will always think of me as a pale, unhealthy, pasty-looking weirdo. And people also hear a West Country accent when I’m talking, when there isn’t one. I am from Kent! My accent is Kentish!"

Crook also reveals that he has called time on his comedy cameos in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

He said no to reprising the part of the glass-eyed Ragetti, member of Captain Barbossa’s crew in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Dead Men Tell No Tales.

“When it comes down to it, it’s a choice between doing the character again that I did 12 years ago, and it’s a little part in a big Hollywood movie, or doing my own passion project.”

Read the full interview in this week's Radio Times magazine, on sale from Tuesday 20th October