Who could forget the utterly crushing storyline of Gregory Finch from Channel 4’s It’s A Sin? The brief, brilliant role of a dancing bus conductor (better known to friends as Gloria) won actor David Carlyle a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA nomination. During covid, that character and entangled themes surrounding the 1980s AIDS crisis catapulted Carlyle into the limelight after years of working in theatre. It also led the Cumbernauld-born actor into LGBTQIA+ activism, something he has continued, as an ambassador for London’s LGBT retirement community Tonic Housing and as a presenter on Virgin Radio’s pop-up Pride station, among other things. We caught up over Zoom one evening after Carlyle had finished rehearsals for Soho Theatre’s Boys On The Verge Of Tears, Sam Grabiner’s play set in a gents’ toilet.

‘There was something so empowering about my role as Gregory,’ Carlyle notes about a character who was originally written as Mancunian by Russell T Davies but adapted to Glaswegian immediately after Carlyle’s audition. ‘In that storyline, I remember feeling it was the first time I’d been allowed to be so authentically myself. I’d played predominantly heterosexual characters before, but as an openly queer man who is active about championing queer voices, this was a moment to indulge my campy, queeny side and have fun. It’s always been part of my personal life, but I hadn’t really used it in roles. That felt great to do.’

Carlyle is back on small screens, with another straight role, this time in the Glasgow-set comedy series Dinosaur. He plays Bo, the nosy, cheeky, drunk brother to Ashley Storrie’s character of Nina, a palaeontologist with autism and a sworn aversion to romantic relationships. ‘Being with Ashley, who’s also one of the creators, meant our scenes were 80% scripted, 20% playing around. During a scene, she was able to adapt things there and then. Ashley is so alive to things; she just gets involved.’

Sometimes that involvement is taken to extremes, as Carlyle discovered while filming a scene with Storrie in Glasgow’s Queen’s Park. ‘We heard the crew shouting and starting to run. So Ashley just suddenly takes off, running. Two guys had nicked a car and crashed it. One guy was legging it and Ashley chased him! Then she remembered people were actually waiting to finish the scene and she stopped. She’s just brilliant.’ 

After living in London for years with his husband, Carlyle enjoyed returning to Scotland to film Dinosaur. He’s also writing for TV, a project focused on his Cumbernauld birthplace. ‘Who knows, maybe it’ll all end up on a cutting room floor somewhere,’ he laughs, ‘but it’s been great to branch out from acting into writing.’

All episodes of Dinosaur are available now on BBC iPlayer.