MARTIN Clunes has been talking about his new drama about Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan, which aired on Monday.

He says he didn’t want to take on the role – and only did so because his wife asked.

Philippa persuaded him after years of playing Doc Martin to do something different and get out of his comfort zone.

Based on the bestselling, Man Booker prize nominated novel by Julian Barnes, Arthur and George is the real-life account of Conan Doyle's own personal detective investigation into the case of George Edalji, jailed in 1903 for a string of bizarre attacks on livestock in a small Staffordshire community - a case which eventually led to the formation of the Court of Appeal.

Clunes admits to being "out of his comfort zone" with the project and if it wasn't for his wife Philippa Brathwaite - who produced the drama - he would never have got as far as filming.

He said: "All I've done for the last few years is a bit of Doc Martin and petted some animals in a documentary and that's about it.

"Just really nice and cosy and comfortable things, and I've been happy to stay at home or just do the work that I'm lucky enough to do. If it hadn't have been my own wife asking me to do it I probably would have done a runner! But I didn't want to lose face."

“I bail out of things quite frequently for one reason or another. Worse than that - I've been signed up to do things and then got cold feet. I won't name them as other people go on to do them."

He says he’s never regretted passing on any of these opportunities.

"I've only ever punched the air with joy when I've managed to get out of something, even when they have been a success.”

Thankfully, Clunes is so happy to have taken on this role and actually thanks his wife for forcing him to make good his word.

"After about a week I thanked Philippa for getting me to do it, because it reminded me how much I love being an actor and how much I love doing my job. It's good to be scared and challenged and I got quite fired up by it." I In fact, Clunes is so pleased with the result that he is open to the one-off drama becoming a series in the future. "Who knows? It's good for television that there are returning dramas and there were other cases that Conan Doyle did look into. And it would be fun, but Julian will have to get on with writing the story.

The three-episode ITV drama hits the screens on Monday March 2.