Being Human begins on Sunday 25 January, BBC3, 9pm

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So Russell, your new BBC3 drama based on last year’s pilot sees you as a werewolf ­sharing a house with a ghost and a vampire...

Haha, yeah. When the script came it did sound cheesy – like Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps with blood and a hairy wig. But I read it and it’s amazingly written and all about their domestic life. It’s exactly what I’d watch.

You have lots of nude “transforming” scenes. How were they to film?

Well, it depends if we’re inside or outside. Outside, my pride is gone. In one scene I was walking up a field and this dog walker stops and just looks at me. And I’m going, “can anyone just move him aside?” He must have thought we were filming a pornographic B-movie.

The other two characters are played by different actors from the pilot. Why?

I think they just wanted a change. I was nervous going into it ­because I thought the three before worked well. But after a day we were straight into it. 

Russell T Davies recommended you as the next Doctor Who, didn’t he?

Yeah. When Russell said that people were saying, “Well done, congratulations” and I was like, “What? It’s not happened.” There were talks and it didn’t work out – that’s fine. I did audition [for new show-runner Steven Moffat]. I then found out Matt [Smith] got it, and thought, perfect! You ­become public property and I don’t know how I would cope with that. I’d do it – how could you not? – but it would terrify me. It would be overnight fame. Everyone has an opinion, and what some ­people were saying about me was so horrible.

Do you still hang out with the other old History Boys cast like James Corden?

Yeah, it’s nice, there’s no b*llocks. James is super-­famous now but we still meet up and take the piss.

What can we expect from the rest of the series?

Well, I meet another werewolf, Annie meets another ghost, and I have to find how I can have a normal life and be a werewolf at the same time.

Being Human begins on Sunday, BBC3, 9pm