Tux the man for the job? James Norton looks set to stir up new Bond rumours as he undergoes a VERY 007-esque makeover for new BBC drama McMafia

By Laura Lambert Tv And Radio Reporter For The Daily Mail

Published: 00:29 GMT, 19 December 2017 | Updated: 01:05 GMT, 19 December 2017

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We'll see him getting out of a taxi in a tuxedo, emerging from the sea in swimming trunks, flirting with glamorous women, and taking down corrupt mafia bosses.

And even James Norton himself has admitted that his latest TV role will ‘stir’ the long-running rumours that he will be cast as the next James Bond.

The British actor, 32, said he warned the directors of the BBC’s big-budget New Year drama McMafia that putting him in a tuxedo for his first scene would fuel the speculation.

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Rumour has it: James Norton has admitted that his latest TV role in McMafia will ‘stir’ the long-running rumours that he will be cast as the next James Bond

Norton, who plays a banker of Russian descent who is trying to escape his mafia family’s legacy of crime and violence, also revealed the gruelling Russian martial arts training he went through as part of the role.

During the ‘terrifying’ Systema classes, he said he would be punched for ‘hours’, while at other moments his teacher would hold his hand over his mouth until he started ‘spasming’, to train him to cope with pain.

At a preview screening for the eight-part series in London earlier this month, Norton said: ‘Part of my preparation for Alex and getting into the head of his Russian-ness...I went to these classes, genuine martial art classes and they have them in London.

The name's Bond, James Bond: The British actor, 32, said he warned the directors of the BBC’s big-budget New Year drama McMafia that putting him in a tuxedo for his first scene would fuel the speculation

'They are run by this amazingly eccentric man called David, who I became very close to. We would meet in a room on our own, and roll around and punch each other.

‘The first thing he said to me in my first lesson was “The thing about English people, when they meet fear they run away. In Russia when we meet fear we shake him by the f***ing hand”.

‘We had hours and hours of this man punching me. It’s about taking the pain and relaxing through it.

Dedicated: The gruelling Russian martial arts training he went through as part of the role for McMafia are similar to what Daniel Craig had to go through

The next Daniel Craig? The hunk set pulses racing when he appeared topless in the first few minutes of the second series of Grantchester last year

‘He would genuinely have his hand [over my mouth] and I would have to hold my [breath] and he would say “at that point where your body is spawning and you are naturally getting terrified, that is when you have to push through”. It was terrifying.’

When asked if he agreed that the role for the multi-million-pound drama was almost an audition to be cast as the next 007 after Daniel Craig, he said he had discussed the similarities with the series creators Hossein Amini and James Watkins.

‘I did warn James and Hoss that if they wrote the first scene of me getting out of a black cab in a tux that would maybe stir some of it,’ he said.

Talented: Norton shot to fame in 2014 playing psychopath Tommy Lee Royce in BBC’s Happy Valley and has gone on to star as Prince Andrei in BBC’s adaptation of War and Peace (pictured above)

‘To be honest...I am personally very grateful that Daniel Craig is going to do at least one more, maybe two, or five.’

Nevertheless, during the eight months of filming in locations including London, Croatia, Qatar, Mumbai, Prague, Cairo and Belgrade, the Grantchester star - who was privately educated at Ampleforth College - had to take on many of the same physical challenges as Craig has done.

When asked if there had been any moments of danger during filming, Watkins said: ‘In later episodes when you see the Systema, James was getting properly hit. There were times in the cut I can see that was in pain, it wasn’t acting.’

Fuelling the fire: The talented actor said he had discussed with BBC creators the similarities between his character in McMafia and James Bond

Revealing how he had got into shape for the topless scenes in the series, of which there are a few in the first episode, Norton said: ‘I tried to stay healthy. We were basically getting six hours of sleep a night and it was an eight-month shoot. Catering was slim on the ground because obviously [it was] BBC, so we kept pretty slim anyway.’

Norton shot to fame in 2014 playing psychopath Tommy Lee Royce in BBC’s Happy Valley and was nominated for the BAFTA Best Supporting Actor for his role the following year. He has since gone on to star as Prince Andrei in BBC’s adaptation of War and Peace and Reverend Sidney in ITV’s Grantchester.

He set pulses racing when he appeared topless in the first few minutes of the second series of Grantchester last year.

The actor, whose parents are both teachers, graduated from Cambridge University with a First in theology before pursuing acting at Rada.

Stirring the pot: ‘I did warn James and Hoss that if they wrote the first scene of me getting out of a black cab in a tux that would maybe stir some of it,’ he said

Norton revealed he inhabited his character, Alex Godman, while carrying out daily chores in the lead up to filming McMafia.

He said: ‘I did this bizarre thing where I spent time as Alex doing really mundane stuff, such as buying milk or brushing my teeth, in his headspace with his demons, his conflicts, de-sires and passions. It meant when I was on set and they called action, the headspace became quickly familiar to me. I think it freaked people out when I walked about as a schizophrenic Russian banker and then would go back to being me but that’s my process!’

Asked if he struggled with filming the show out of sequence, he said: ‘It was a huge challenge as we constantly had to be aware of where we were, in the morning we could be in Tel Aviv, in the afternoon in Moscow and in London in the evening, so we were really careful to keep in control of that.’

McMafia was inspired by Misha Glenny’s non-fiction book McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime, which was published in 2008, but the majority of the main story is fictional.

McMafia will air at 9pm on New Year’s Day on BBC1.