Martin Compston has revealed he auditioned for the role of Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders.
The 38-year-old Line of Duty star thought he'd be in with a chance at bagging the role of the Brummie crime boss in the series but ultimately lost out to Irish actor Cillian Murphy.
He admitted that he struggled to do a Birmingham accent to correspond with the role, so he 'didn't follow up' afterwards.
Speaking on his Restless Natives podcast, he said: “I’m not good at accents, I couldn’t do a Brummie accent right now.
“(Writer) Jed Mercurio is a Brummie, so he recorded all my lines for me and it was one of those moments where you’re like, ‘I’ve got a shout’.
"Then my agent went, ‘Oh, Cillian Murphy is up for that,’ and you just don’t follow it up again ever.”
Compston recently starred alongside Tony Curran and Ashley Jensen in BBC's Mayflies.
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