Robert Carlyle thought political drama Cobra was about a snake

Robert Carlyle has said he thought his new drama Cobra was about a snake when he got the script.

The Trainspotting star, 58, plays prime minister Robert Sutherland in Sky’s political drama.

But he said at first he thought the title referred to a snake rather than the name of a meeting room – Cabinet Office Briefing Room A.

“I thought it was a script about a snake,” said the star. “I didn’t know that much at all.

“I spoke to a couple of Scots politicians who told me about it. It’s convened quite a lot, these things happen the public don’t know.

“So that was new for me.”

Carlyle insisted that when he tells people he is in a show called Cobra, “they look at me as if ‘Why are you doing a show about a snake?’”

The actor also revealed that making the six-part drama made him sympathise with what prime ministers go through.

Asked if he had sympathy with what they have to do, he said: “Prior to doing this I had absolutely zero I would think.

“But during that time I remember Theresa May was going back and forward to Brussels and she was ageing five years by the week while I was making this and I felt for her.

“Of course she’s got a life, she’s got problems, the stuff we all have going on in her lives. I felt for her as a human being and from one human being to another.”

Cobra – which also stars Victoria Hamilton, Richard Dormer and David Haig – is on Sky One on January 17.