 PAUL McGANN has been a hard man to get hold of. Other work commitments have meant it's been difficult to tie him down for a chat about his latest TV drama, the romantic thriller Lie With Me. And, as Paul later puts it, "real life has intervened". For the father of two - who lives in Bristol with his wife Annie and their sons Joe, 16, and Jake, 14 - has also been making the final arrangements for Jake's impending birthday party. "It's quite good because his birthday is fireworks night and providing you stay in Britain, there's always a do," says Paul. "We were actually able to choose, within a week, Jake's birthday for that reason. "Both our kids were caesarean births and with Jake the consultant said we could do it anytime in the week we wanted. I think that year it was a Monday, so we thought, why don't we get it over with and also it's Bonfire Night, so he'll always have a do. This is how you think as a parent." Paul's real life as a family man is very much at odds with the lives he usually portrays on screen. Well-known for playing brooding characters who are often hiding things under their shifty exteriors, Paul, 44, exudes this demeanour to perfection in Lie With Me. He plays Gerry Henson, a successful art dealer with an insatiable appetite for women that is tolerated by his long-suffering wife. But when Jo, his girlfriend of eight months, is discovered dead by her flatmate Roselyn, the mounting evidence starts to point to him. With Roselyn's memory a blank concerning the events of the night before, the truth about Gerry's level of involvement in Jo's death remains vague. Soon he finds himself the focus of an unethical plot to implicate him in the murder. But did he actually do it? "I was intrigued by the idea of it," says Paul of why he took the part. "And of course the character they wanted me to play was something I enjoy being offered and playing - people that perhaps are slightly morally ambiguous." Playing Gerry might have come easily for Paul, but remembering what he was supposed to say was slightly more difficult. The actor sometimes has a habit of forgetting his lines which stems from an episode of stage fright he experienced some years ago. "It isn't funny really," he says after laughing at the memory of it. "It's funny now to talk about but when you're standing there, catatonic, it isn't funny at all. For a performer it's quite nightmarish and knocks your confidence. | 
