'Taylor is different to most men of his rank. Although a Sandhurst graduate, he comes from a working-class background and doesn't always behave like an officer. At thirty-two, he has been divorced for two years and out in Australia has a fling with a local girl. Even so, he's a good soldier - tough but fair.'

At one stage, Dougray himself briefly contemplated a career in the services. 'As a boy I wanted to play soccer for Hibs [Hibernian] but then, when I was fifteen, I did think about joining the Navy. I was actually quite close to joining up but then school plays lured me towards acting instead. It was probably just as

well. I think my family's politics might have been a little too left-wing for the Navy!'

After training at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, where he won the Most Promising Drama Student award, Dougray progressed to theatre and television. His TV credits include the Taggart story 'Nest of Vipers' (in which he played a particularly unpleasant killer), Lovejoy, Stay Lucky and Kavanagh, QC. He also played Don Pedro in a production of Zorro for Spanish TV

'I went to Madrid for that: says Dougray, and then of course there was Australia and South Africa on Soldier, Soldier. It was my first time in Australia and I loved it. Sydney was great - really exciting - while Alice Springs was different from anywhere else I've ever been. And I managed to find time to visit the Blue Mountains where an aunt of mine used to live for years.

'I'd been warned about the Australian wildlife but an Aborigine in Alice Springs told me he'd only seen two snakes in twenty years. Perhaps he was trying to make me feel good because Robson and Jerome said they'd seen two deadly taipans in the space of a couple of days!'