SEAN Scanlan seems the perfect choice to play a Peter Madelson type in a play about political skulduggery, backstabbing and double dealing.

Not that there’s anything questionable about the Glasgow-born actor’s character.

It’s simply that Sean brings an acting pedigree and life experience to the part most actors wouldn’t come close to.

Sean stars in Democracy, a political play by Michael Frayn so Machiavellian it makes House Of Cards seem like a game of Snap.

It focuses on West German politics from 1969 – 1974, when West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, (played by Tom Hodgkins) came to power.

Sean Scanlan’s character, Herbert Wehner, is the pivot in the play, which means his performance is key.

Yet, despite being one of the best in the business, having played the great Shakespeare roles at the Bristol Old Vic, won over the Royal Court and his performance in Dennis Potter’s Brimstone and Treacle at the Sheffield Crucible was described as ‘A tour de force’, Sean didn’t plan on becoming an actor at all.

Yet Sean, who has appeared in countless TV and film productions such as The Tales of Para Handy, River City and the recently remade Whisky Galore, admits he never courted dreams of becoming a thespian.

“Not at all,” he says, grinning. “My brother was a lawyer, and I was expected to study Law.”

He thinks for a moment and laughs. “Bill Nighy, whom I would often meet for a coffee before he really made it, was quoted when asked why he became an actor; ‘I was always looking for something to do that didn’t involve work,’ he said. And that’s how I felt.”

Having been asked to leave Glasgow private school St Aloysius’ College (his Beatles-influenced long hair and gold coloured corduroys were too much for the teacher priests) a pub conversation led to the teenager trying out for the New Victory Players Dramatic Club, based, rather appropriately, in Glasgow’s Hope Street.

“I went down for a laugh and ended up appearing in this play called Dodd’s Dilemma, as The Father,” he recalls.

“I had never even seen a play at this time, let along been in one.

“But it turns out I got standing ovations every time I went on stage. And when my mother and granny saw me up there both declared ‘Born to it!’ And that was me. I was in.”

He adds; “My mother had said she wanted me to become a lawyer, but secretly she loved the idea of me becoming an actor.

“I learned later she and my father had been amateur actors at Glasgow’s Athenaeum. There’s something in the DNA I guess.”

Scanlan’s father Bill was a journalist who left the family when young Sean was just three.

“We never found out why. He went off to work in Oxford and that was that. I met him later but most of the time he was drinking, and I daren’t ask why he’d left us.

“He’d come up and visit sometimes and take me, my brother and sister to the Botanic Gardens for ice cream. Michael was six, I would be four and my sister one.

“Then he’d leave the three of is in the park and head to Tennent’s Bar. Bill Scanlan was an irresponsible man.” He cites an example. “My mother was a secretary and I heard my father once came up to her office one day, demanding the use of a typewriter, claiming he had a deadline to meet.

“She gave him the typewriter - and he pawned it. Yet, he was apparently very popular, and charismatic.”

Sean took off to London in 1971 to seek his fortune. He joined the Drama Centre, studying at nights.

“I had fun along the way,” he says, smiling in recoil of party nights and drinking sessions with the likes of rock star Frankie Miller and writer Peter McDougall.

His career moved steadily upwards but spirit-crushing disappointments also arrived, such as almost landing the lead role of Jimmy Boyle in 1979 film A Sense of Freedom (which would go to David Hayman).

“I was too well-fed looking,” he says, with a wry smile. “Too much of a beer belly for the part.”

Sean landed a key role in early eighties ITV drama Airline, which was scheduled for a five year run, but shot down after just one series, thanks to Thatcher-TV franchise politics.

“I thought at that age I was going to be a star. But you learn.”

Regardless, the actor continued to enjoy great runs in theatre and in television, such as a stint in Coronation Street in the mid-eighties. And when he returned to Scotland television after 35 years, television doors opened for him, in the form of Rab C. Nesbitt, (playing Rab’s posh cousin, Shug) River City and Katie Morag.

Yet, Scottish theatre has been less inviting.

“I’d been away too long it seems,” he says, with a smile of resignation. “Directors already had their favourites. The cliques were established. It was hard for me to get in.”

Sean worked hard to convince. He also realised he was becoming a little too much like his errant father.

The actor quit drinking before it wrecked his career and his life and subsequently found love with ubiquitous actress Barbara Rafferty. Now, the couple live in Glasgow’s West End, with a lovely holiday home in the south of France.

“She is special,” he says softly of his hugely talented wife.

However, Sean Scanlan is also a success story. “My definition of success is staying in the game,” says the 68 year-old, his eyes twinkling.

“I’m still making a living at acting. Surviving is all.”

And in spite of initially being a convenience actor, he loves the acting world.

“And here I am in a Seventies political play which is so clever and so relevant to today. How could I not be having a great time?”

• Democracy also features Colin McCredie, Michael Moreland, Jack Lord, Alan Steele, Jim Kitson, Steven Scott Fitzgerald and Stewart Porter. The Theatre Royal, September 6-10.