Lennie James: I found it hard to control my emotions during Save Me Too filming

Lennie James has said that he found it difficult to control his emotions while filming scenes for his forthcoming drama, Save Me Too.

The Walking Dead star, 54, said “one particular story” had affected him even though he had penned it himself.

James wrote and stars in the Sky Atlantic show, from the makers of Bodyguard and Line Of Duty, which follows on from the Save Me series.

He appears as Nelly Rowe, a self-styled womaniser, whose life is turned upside down when he is arrested and accused of kidnapping his 13-year-old daughter, who he barely knew existed.

James said: “Yeah, there’s one particular story that even though I wrote it and created it, every time at a read-through, every time at a rehearsal, every time I said the words out loud, it affected me.

“I found it very, very hard to control my emotions, to the point where after a few takes the director saved me and said: ‘I don’t think we can put you through this again.’

“A lot of the time one of the fantastic things about this cast is that they were very good at having a lot of fun, while we took what we were doing very seriously.”

James said that fans should expect a second series although he was “not quite there yet”.

He said: “I’m putting it all together – or trying to. In all honesty, I’m not quite there yet, but yes I do have thoughts about carrying on the story because as I said this was always an idea for a returning television series and I don’t feel quite that I’m finished with these characters.

“But it’s got to be an idea that encompasses all the characters; it’s not just about the continuing adventures of Nelly and his search for his child, it’s also about what that search or what that journey does to the people around him.

“So if I can finalise one that brings the gang, then yeah absolutely.”

Save Me Too also stars Suranne Jones, Stephen Graham and Lesley Manville.

The show is available on Sky Atlantic and Now TV from Wednesday April 1.