The Harvey character, he had a very clear function, to go hunting for information. But the liberation, when he evolved, was when Scorpius, in his arrogant way, took out the chip, but left the clone. [Since then] he�s like an actor without a role.

So that led me to go a little bit more crazy. Really to free it up. For me, it�s just clear cut, it�s pretty obvious that they�re two very separate characters. There�s no confusion, [I don�t] have to go away in a corner and prepare anything, nothing like that at all.

Certainly the real liberation came when Scorpius did extract that piece of data out of Crichton�s brain, and the notion of this guy is, he�s a loose cannon. He�s bouncing off the walls, going crazy. He wants to be useful, he wants to do something. He�s an actor with out a role. So that�s when he really got energised.

He has a manic nature, which he didn�t have to start with, because I really didn�t know what I was doing. I was just putting my foot in the water. But, as I say, once we extracted that piece of data from Crichton�s brain, I just knew that I could go to play, I could actually really up the ante, turn the volume up.

Is Harvey fun to play?

There�s fun and there�s fun. I mean, the comedy is fun. There�s no doubt about it, the silliness is fun. But there�s nothing like intimidating people. And winning. You always win. Even when you give it all away, they think they�re winning, they think they�re winning. Not!

I love that. You know, the seduction.