ACTOR Billy Murray – known for his villainous roles in EastEnders and The Bill – was in Dorset to talk about his new gangster movie, Nemesis.

The film, which contains scenes shot in Bournemouth, shot into the top three in all the supermarket DVD charts on the day of its release last week.

The veteran star plays a gangster who wants to turn his back on his trade but finds his family home invaded by armed intruders.

Nemesis was put together by Bournemouth-based producer Jonathan Sothcott and co-stars his wife Jeanine Nerossa Sothcott – and the three posed with digital posters advertising the movie in Bournemouth town centre.

Billy Murray, who played the gangland figure Jonny Allen in EastEnders and the corrupt Detective Sergeant Don Beech in The Bill, said: “The appeal of gangsters is the Robin Hood and Dick Turpin thing.

“Everyone roots for the gangster don’t they? Especially if there’s a nice gangster – and I usually play nice gangsters.

“I always say that as an actor, when you get up in the morning, when you look in the mirror, what looks back at you goes to work and I’m quite happy with what looks back.

“I’m quite happy doing what I’m doing. When I was playing Beech in The Bill, he was a bad piece of work but people were rooting for him. They like a bad boy."

The new film was shot during the Covid pandemic, with actors wearing masks until the cameras were rolling.

“It was very difficult. You had to obey all the rules. It’s very strange, running through the lines with your mask on and I don’t hear very well so I have to lip read and I found it quite difficult,” said Mr Murray.

Producer Jonathan Sothcott said the film’s London shooting wrapped just before the latest Covid lockdown would have made filming impossible. “There’s a scene where the little girl runs along Bournemouth beach and we shot some pickup interiors of the flat here as well, so it has got a proper Bournemouth connection – but that was just because London was closed down," he said.

"There was nowhere else to do it so we just got it in the can before Christmas."

He added: “If you like gangster movies, you’ll like Nemesis. If you don’t, you probably won’t, and I continue my run of Guardian-baiting, critic-proof movies.

“But you have to remember a one-star review in the Guardian is kind of like five stars in a way because if they hate it, then everyone else will love it.”

Nemesis is out on DVD and digital platforms.