THERE'S something that's been bothering me for a while now.

Ross Kemp: he's an actor, right? The Cockney 'ardman character Grant Mitchell he played in EastEnders was just a role, right?

This is the actor who, before EastEnders, appeared singing in a jolly Fruit 'n Fibre cereal advert, right?

Then how come he seems to be clinging to his bruiser image in real life with a series of "look how tough I am?" documentaries?

To be fair, it doesn't seem to be doing his career any harm - he did after all win a Bafta for Ross Kemp on Gangs' (as they never fail to mention when talking about the programme, if you notice).

Anyway, Kemp is done with gangs. Now he's focusing his attention on something ever more macho: war.

Strangely, the soldiers he met in last night's Ross Kemp in Afghanistan' seemed to buy into the "one of the lads" image and opened up about their growing worries, missing their families, and the small matter of maybe dying.

They seemed to believe he really was Grant Mitchell, landlord of the Queen Vic, and no stranger to a bit of rough-and-tumble himself.

But aside from Kemp's OTT dramatic voiceover pauses used way too many times for effect, it was actually pretty touching stuff, especially the story of 18-year-old Josh who signed up at only 16.