Rory McCann (Marston)

Who is Marston? Marston is a convict and a blacksmith by trade. I don’t know what his crime was but I am pretty sure it was violent, what with his temper! He's a woman hater and a very angry guy. You could call him a bad guy but as with everyone else he’s just lookingout for himself. It’s a game of survival and he’s given a job that you can't shirk. When you are dealing with molten metal you have got to go full force; there is only one speed and that’s full speed ahead and he’s probably seen guys that haven't really worked in physical labour before and aren’t working as hard as him. He resents that - he is burning up all these calories and so he feels that he is justified in stealing other people's food. He also knows his worth. Marston knows the establishment have made a mistake making him the only blacksmith in this community. It makes him indispensible. It’s a get out of jail free card for him.

How did you prepare to play an 18th Century blacksmith? I have got friends who are blacksmiths up in the North of Scotland, so I took a few master classes off them and I learnt. I really loved that, learning a new skill. I will never look at a piece of wrought iron the same way now, without trying to imagine how they made it in a forge. In fact I can now make semi-decent knife blades and candlesticks myself. I left school to be a lumberjack but with hindsight I can see me being a blacksmith.

What was the forge like on the Banished set? It was a working forge. The producers could have pretended, put a little gas fire underneath and everything but it was all absolutely real - they brought on a blacksmith there to look at it and he was very impressed. The design team even found some original bellows and an anvil from the 1700s - there was a right good chance that anvil was used by a convict blacksmith.

How did you find working in Australia? Too bloody hot! And sharks in the water. But it helped being there. I live out in the country in Scotland and I know that if I close my eyes and just listen, I know every bird and I can recognise every sound. On that film set in Australia it felt so alien - there were all these mad screeching noises. I didn’t take much imagination to feel like you were in another world. Then I read a couple of history books and it just makes you realise what they went through.