Can the country's last public hangman be an uncomplicated character who you could bump into in the pub? Yes, Timothy Spall tells Steve Pratt as the tale of executioner Albert Pierrepoint reaches the big screen. On TV, Spall welcomes his first project with Jimmy McGovern.

TIMOTHY Spall describes his latest film character as "very ordinary, simple, quite jolly, an Everyman". What marked him out was having one of the most extraordinary jobs in the world - public hangman.

In Pierrepoint, Spall portrays Albert Pierrepoint, who followed his father and uncle in becoming a public executioner. The Oldham-born man was responsible for hanging over 600 people, including some of Britain's most infamous murderers and Nazi war criminals, before his sudden resignation in 1956.

Spall - who returns to the small screen next week in BBC1's new drama series The Street - had read Pierrepoint's book some time ago but the movie script brought it all back. "I thought it was such a fantastic take on what's remained a bit of a riddle as to why he gave up," he says.

"Everyone assumes that they know about hanging and how it's done, and they'd also supposed he was fed up after the brouhaha with Ruth Ellis, that he wouldn't want to do it any more.

"But after talking to the writer and doing a bit of research myself, I realised it wasn't just that but a mixture of things. On one level, he's a simple character but, in fact, he's not, he's very complex.

"What we're doing is trying to explain what it eventually costs to do something like this. Also, there's a riveting piece about the changing of the times and attitudes."

The actor has seen film of Pierrepoint saying he felt he had a dual personality, that he could leave himself behind when he did the hanging. "He was proud that he was good at it. That connects with the fact that he felt that if he was proficient, he was providing a service which was not cruel. He was insistent that no form of cruelty was involved," says Spall.

"When we see those hangings, they're pretty brutal, but they're very quick. This film puts things in focus."

The mechanics of hanging, along with the film's gallows set, brought home what the job entailed. "We all think it's just about a rope and a knot and stuff, but you do realise that it's actually a kind of craft. The clinical side, the precision and the speed of it," he says.

"Although it's designed to be humane, it's actually still brutal. It isn't senselessly cruel because there's actually no pain. But there's something about it, as Albert would say, that's 'integrated'. It's a function of another age. But you'd be surprised how many people think that it should still be allowed."

He views the film as one of the most successful anti-capital punishment films ever made and one asking the audience to understand the man who's doing these terrible things.

"Hopefully, the audience will be rooting for him like they do in the story after the Nazi trials. That's when he became famous. The script brilliantly goes from that into him being spat on, the complete change around of public opinion.

"It's seen from the hangman's side, it's completely original. He just happens not to be an evil psychopath who wears a hood, who's a pervert. He's a jolly bloke. He sings in boozers. He could be your granddad, or mine for that matter."

Spall is equally enthusiastic about his new BBC1 project, The Street. It marks his first time working with writer Jimmy McGovern. "I've always loved his stuff, so to get the opportunity was fantastic," he says.

"What Jimmy does, he writes about ordinary people who get themselves in extraordinary situations. He just writes absolutely truthfully and honestly about the consequences of their actions in a non-soapy way."

He plays cab driver Eddie, who picks up asylum seeker Ojo and invites him home for the night. "Eddie wouldn't hesitate to help someone who needs it which is why he ends up taking the asylum seeker home," says Spall.

"There's something quite innocent about Eddie, he's open-minded and open-hearted. The lovely thing about the story is that Eddie and Ojo build up a really nice relationship, they have a connection.

"It's like a strange kind of love story in a weird way. There's nothing sexual in it but they find, in this odd series of events, a kind of great affection for each other, an incongruous one which shows it's completely universal really.

"In its own simple way, this story says a lot more about race relations and prejudices than a story that would be far more interested in waving its political flag."

The Street was the first project he read after deciding to take a bit of time off and couldn't resist it. The series reunited him with old friends Jim Broadbent and Jane Horrocks. They've done quite a few projects together over the last 15 years.

"Life Is Sweet is where we all became real pals. It's a delight to not only work with people you really like, people you respect on good projects is like a dream really. It's what you strive to achieve."

* Pierrepoint (15) shows at Newcastle Tyneside and York City Screen from tomorrow.

* The Street begins on Thursday on BBC1 at 9pm.

Published: 06/04/2006