Breaking Bad fans have had their withdrawal symptoms relieved at last, with the arrival of new spin-off show Better Call Saul.

If you're one of remaining very few not hooked already, Breaking Bad told the tale of chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston), who became a crystal meth dealer after being diagnosed with cancer, and worrying about the future of his family as he struggled to pay his medical bills.

Created by Vince Gilligan, the show garnered a cult following when it launched in 2008, and by the end of its fifth and final season, in 2013, it had won a legion of fans, a shedload of awards, and high critical acclaim.

So fans were delighted when it was announced that Bob Odenkirk, aka Breaking Bad's dodgy lawyer Saul Goodman, would return in his own spin-off series; in fact, Better Call Saul became the highest-rated cable debut in US TV history, after it launched this month.

So how is the actor feeling?

"Um, weird," he admits. "It's hard to take it all in."

"I'm thankful that people have been open-minded about it, because people loved Breaking Bad so much. And when people love something like that, they want to protect it, you know what I mean.

"We felt the same way, all the people who worked on Breaking Bad, and so we were very careful about even choosing to do this show."

A bit like Saul, Odenkirk is very slick. Dressed in an open-neck shirt and slacks, he strides confidently down the corridor of the hotel, where our interview is taking place, greeting everybody he passes.

The 52-year-old comedian is naturally witty, and punctuates his sentences with sarcastic asides.

Set six years before Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul sees the lawyer back when he is still using his real name - Jimmy McGill.

Struggling to make ends meet, he is a more naive and earnest character than the one Breaking Bad fans will be familiar with - though he already has his gift of the gab and talent for drama.

While audiences already know he is to become cold and calculating, and eventually fall in with a very dangerous crowd, as the series opens, he is just trying to make enough money to look after his sick brother and pay his bills.

"Jimmy McGill is a likeable guy if you get to know him," muses Odenkirk. "And if you knew the things that motivate him, you can relate to him. Similar to Walter White - once you knew who he was, you felt for him, you wanted him to succeed. At least for a while."

Odenkirk has revealed that the idea for the show actually began as a joke, while they were making Breaking Bad. And he was even reluctant to take the job, initially, because of the time it would mean being away from his wife and two children.

But fans were begging for a new fix; Odenkirk admits the hype around Breaking Bad has been overwhelming.

"It's the TV cable version of The Beatles," he says, chuckling. "People go crazy! They go nuts."

Because the show is a prequel, there's the potential for any of the Breaking Bad characters to pop up in Better Call Saul.

Odenkirk teases that even Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, who played Walter's sidekick Jesse Pinkman, could appear.

"You don't see Walter and you don't see Jesse in the first seasons, but you do see other characters," he says.

"But as the seasons go on - there is a second season we plan on making - there is a chance we'll see other people from Breaking Bad."

l Better Call Saul is available on Netflix