Morrissey: Less period drama please (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Morrissey: Less period drama please

12:11am Tuesday 12th February 2013 in National Entertainment News © Press Association 2013

David Morrissey has said there is too much period drama on the small screen.

The likes of Downton Abbey, Mr Selfridge, Call The Midwife and Parade's End are just some of the dramas, set in the past, which have been shown by ITV and the BBC in recent months.

But The Walking Dead star, 48, said he would "commission less period drama" if he was a channel controller.

"The next 10 years are going to be very challenging and that needs to be reflected on our screens," he told the Radio Times. "My taste is always about what's happening to real people, right now."

The Red Riding star also said he objected to The X Factor and Big Brother, "which are the modern equivalent of throwing cabbages at people in the stocks".

David, whose own period drama credits have included South Riding, Sense And Sensibility and The Hollow Crown, now plays The Governor in US zombie drama The Walking Dead.

The Deal star admitted that this was not the first time he had played a brooding character.

"I'm 6ft 3in, I'm from the north of England and there is a gruffness to me, I guess - I'm a miserable b*****d! But it's your job as an actor to mess around with that," he said.

He said that his wife, novelist Esther Freud, could not watch his new show.

"She watched my first episode (of The Walking Dead) and no more. I wouldn't expect her to: when she saw Carry On Screaming! as a child, she thought it was a genuine horror film and had nightmares. She doesn't have that 'it's just a film' filter - which is what I love about her."