In the nine years since, he has been “jobbing away”, recently appearing in Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror (the prime ministerial porcine porking episode) and Skins (in which he played Mini’s errant father). It wasn’t like I would come down in the morning, and there’d be a stack of knickers on the doorstep, though.” Monarch of the Glen was his biggest break, winning him heartthrob status, with the obligatory pant-posting trimmings: “I had my fair share of knickers. He met his wife on the job, in a film directed by his brother, David Mackenzie, but there was no thespian family background, and he slaved away to gain recognition - with all the knockbacks and ego-bruising that entails. He never trained in acting - beginning in Scottish theatre before coming to London permanently, aged 22. Although any trace of an accent is long lost to London life, he says he is a true Scotsman, enjoying hill-walking in a kilt - “they keep you very warm and very cool”. Mackenzie, whose parents are both Scottish, grew up in Sussex before moving north of the border aged 11. There’s an aspirational thing about Danish culture.”
#BORGEN THE LAST WORKER TV#
“They have just got it right on every level - not only with the amazing TV shows, but everything about the city is appealing.
#BORGEN THE LAST WORKER SERIES#
For 11 months, he would trek to Heathrow’s Terminal 5 with his overnight bag and check into the same room in the same hotel in Copenhagen. This is a list of episodes of the television series Borgen, a Danish political drama created. We’re Northern Europeans, they’re pretty close to us not only geographically but culturally.”Īs he has a partner, the actress Susan Vidler, and two children, 13-year-old Martha and Freddie, eight, Mackenzie commuted between London and Denmark for filming. Why does he think Borgen has been such a hit here? “We and the Danes share a sensibility. The Danes have this very filmic approach to TV: they make TV shows as if they are movies.” He was a Borgen fan before he was cast, had watched series one “obsessively” and considers it a “great honour” to be involved in the show: “It is incredibly well made and well written.