So being neurotic is an occupational hazard?
What do you mean, neurotic? Who’s neurotic? Who have you been speaking to who says I’m neurotic?

It’s true, then?
Of course it’s true! You can’t help but be fragile in this profession. You are being judged constantly: you’re overweight, too thin; you’re a luvvie or a difficult individual.

Ever suffered depression?
Yes, after Four Weddings and a Funeral came out. I suppose I found it difficult to adjust to being in the public eye. All of a sudden people who wouldn’t even give me an interview were offering me work. I became resentful and had a lot of negative feelings. I was drinking a bit more, and feeling destructive.

Did you have therapy?
Yes, for about a year. It wasn’t deep therapy as such, just a little bit of counselling. Although you can share these feelings with your partner — and I did talk to my wife, Joanna — sometimes it’s nice to pay a stranger to listen to you for 50 minutes. It gives you perspective, and something to anchor yourself to when things get out of control.

Pop happy pills too?
Yes, but they didn’t really work for me. They stopped me being depressed, but they stopped me from being everything else too.

Ever go back to the shrink?
Yes, occasionally. It is like being an alcoholic, I suppose; counselling becomes something you crave when you feel your life unravelling with stress.

How do you stay up when life gets you down?
Exercise is where I go to clear my head.

You’re a gym bunny?
I am now, and I cycle, too. I used to be a runner and play football, but I hurt my knees a couple of years ago and had to stop that.

Did you take a tumble?
I snapped the anterior cruciate ligament in my knee in a snowboarding accident. I had to have a cadaver graft, where you have a dead person’s ligament put in. I naively thought that I could go back to work after six weeks, so I didn’t continue with the physio and recuperation as I should have done. I had another tear in my cartilage about six months ago, while I was playing with my two-year-old twins and had to have a second operation.

Back on your feet?
I’m in good shape now, although obviously my knees are still unstable. I go to the gym a lot to keep up the strength in the surrounding muscles: my quads and my hamstrings. I do a lot of stretching, too.

Part of the bendy brigade?
I started doing yoga a little while ago.

What’s the appeal?
It’s just so mellow. I am quite a wired person by nature and as I get older I don’t want to sustain that level of hyperdrive. I want to get to a calmer place in my head.

How else do you gen up your Zen?
I like doing anything that is not part of the ongoing business of maintaining life and limb and paying the bills. I love getting out on the golf course. I find that very Zen.

Ever seek spiritual solace?
I’ve recently realised that there is a gap there, so I might start going to church.

What about physical sustenance? Scots aren’t known for their love of lettuce.
It’s true. I have a weakness for fishfinger sandwiches. But I mostly eat fish and free-range chicken; I never eat beef.

Not rabid for red meat?
It is more for ethical reasons. A couple of years ago we were filming Rebus in an abattoir and they were bringing the cows off the trucks and putting them in a holding pen. There was a tangible sense of fear and distress as they were slipping down the ramp. I just thought, I don’t need to eat an animal that big.

Ever light up?
Once in a while I might have a roll-up.

And the sauce?
I’m pretty sensible about drinking. You can’t get a stagger on, then go home and deal with the kids. So I don’t.

Do you have a taste for anything alternative?
I love acupuncture, and I have had it for my knees, my back and for stress. And for fun. It can be a nice chill-out for 45 minutes.

How else do you chill?
I just try to look around as much as possible. It might sound silly, but I think it’s important to be aware of fleeting moments of beauty: the sun popping through the clouds or something.

Fairy godmother, please change . . .
My ears are all right. But other than that, everything else can go.

John Hannah stars in the drama New Street Law on BBC One, 8pm on Thursdays

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