Eddie Marsan jokes he is the next James Bond

Eddie Marsan has joked that he was asked to be the next Jame Bond.

The 53-year-old actor is currently starring as real-life conman John Darwin - who faked his own death as a boating accident back in 2002 so his wife could claim life insurance money and clear their debts - in smash hit ITV drama 'The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe' and took to Twitter after episode two had aired on Monday (18.04.22) to joke that he has been asked to replace Daniel Craig in the 007 franchise following his star turn in the bizarre thriller series.

He tweeted: "I’ve been keeping this quiet for some time but, I’m now so relieved to finally announce… that I’ve been a asked [sic] to be the new Bond."

The former 'Ray Donovan' star is joined by 'Appropriate Adult' actress Monica Dolan - who takes on the role of his complicit wife Anne - in the Hartlepool-based four parter and previously admitted that taking on a Northern accent for the role was one of the "hardest" he has ever done and revealed that he and his on-screen wife would continue to use the accent off-set.

He said: "It's the hardest accent I've ever done. It's hard because you don't want to do Geordie and you don't want to do Yorkshire, and there are subtle differences, where different people from different areas of Teesside have different accents, based basically on their class. Me and Monica [Dolan] just kept it going away from scenes so we could sound like a married couple, because married couples tends to have a kind of shorthand!"

'The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe' continues tonight (19.04.22) on ITV at 9pm, with all four episodes available to stream on ITVHub.