TAM Dean Burn conjures up a very close approximation of evil when required in TV roles such as gangster McCabe in BBC Scotland’s River City, or as a rapist in Sky drama Fortitude. 

And he’s not afraid to reveal a delightful borderline madness either, evidenced on stage by his Mad Hatter.

What’s intriguing about the Leith-born actor is how he so readily accesses this entirely convincing darkness. How can someone, as he did, play out a “hardcore” rape scene in Fortitude, yet just a few hours later find himself telling children about the Gruffalo?

I wonder what sort of trauma has he endured, what form of soul corroding cesspit he had to crawl out to give him his starting position in the likes of Trainspotting, where he voiced the audiobook.

“I actually had a happy life growing up in Clermiston, this council estate above Edinburgh Zoo,” he recalls over coffee in a Glasgow hotel. 

“It was like being in the country. We had woods and fields all around and we could climb the fence into the zoo at night.”

Burn’s father was a joiner whose three sons Tam, Russell and Philip, went on to represent a council house success story.

“My ma’ used to love Art Sutter on Radio Scotland and she would call him up on air. One day she got through and Art said, ‘Jean, you have three sons, what do they do?’ She didn’t want to say, ‘One’s an actor, one’s a footballer and the other is a musician.’ She figured no-one would believe her. So what she said was ‘Well, they’re all doing their own thing, Art.’” 

Burn laughs: “He was probably thinking we were drug addicts or in prison.”

The most demanding part of early life seems to have been which books to pick at the school prizegiving. Was Clermiston that close to Walton’s Mountain?

“No, not quite,” he says. “Growing up there was great but at 18, I was desperate to get away from home, given us three boys were in the one bedroom. But my ma’ and da’ just wouldn’t move out of the area. It was driving me demented until an actor pal offered a room in a flat.”

Burn wasn’t the cliche child actor, desperate to perform. 

“I did the gang shows when in the Cubs, though. And my ma’ loved getting me dressed up to go guising.” 

The actor adds, with a shake of the head: “I remember going round the doors wearing a Girl Guide uniform with bloomers on. And she had me in a kilt when I was young singing A Scottish Soldier.

“But I only became interested in acting at Craigmount High. We had a great theatre space and drama teachers in Joyce Heller and Ken Morley [who would go onto become  Coronation Street’s Reg Holdsworth].”

Yet Burn’s good grades mitigated against developing his love for acting.

“Because I was set to do O levels and Highers I couldn’t do drama anymore. That was it. Gone.”

It didn’t matter too much. The teenager planned to become a journalist, yet fell at the first hurdle. “The closest I got was the shortlist for a traineeship at the Scotsman,” he recalls and adds. 

“It’s as well I didn’t get in. I would have become an alcoholic.”

Instead he formed a punk band, The Dirty Reds, and forgot journalism as he simply couldn’t take the rejection, he says, so it seems strange he signed up to be an actor. 

He smiles at the irony: “Yes, but as an actor you get chosen, which gives you validation.”

Burn’s thoughts turned to professional acting when he saw an “Actors Wanted” advert in the paper. He wanted to be the Scottish James Dean. 

“I didn’t have the hairstyle, though,” he says, smoothing his shiny head. Regardless, Burn took himself off to drama college then worked as an assistant stage manager at Perth Rep, the perfect vehicle for a budding young actor. You would think.

“I know, it sounds odd,” he says, with a wry smile, “but to be honest, I nearly walked away from acting after a few months. We were doing a series of Agatha Christie plays and I complained, ‘A cannae take this any mair’. 

“But the bloke who hired me said, ‘If you leave you won’t work in Scottish theatre again. Your Equity Card will be ripped up and you’ll be in Joan Knight’s [the boss] little black book.’ So I thought I’d stick it out. But it wasn’t me at the time. I was a punk.”

Burn was 30 – he’s now 59 – before he accepted his role in life as an actor. It had all seemed too middle class. But then he realised acting didn’t have to be about solving mysteries and went on to perform work that helped feed his need for a sense of community. 

He enjoyed stints with the likes of TAG Theatre Company, based at the Citizens Theatre, and he performed everything from Steven Berkoff plays to school productions. Now he felt at home. Every now and then, Burn gets the chance to appear on stage or on film and let loose with the madness, as in the case with new film Moon Dogs. 

The story follows teenage step-brothers Michael (Jack Parry-Jones) and Thor (Christy O’Donnell) as they journey from Shetland to Glasgow for very different reasons. Aspiring Irish singer Caitlin (Tara Lee) beguiles both boys and passions come to a head at a music festival.

“It’s a lovely wee film and I’ve got a nice part as a sleazy folk promoter who’s also in charge of a fish factory, filmed in Shetland and Ayr.”

It’s not just anger that emerges in Burn’s performances. It’s raw emotion. The actor once said: “I bruise a bit too easily.” Does this suggest a darkness he has to work at containing?

“Oh, yes,” he agrees. “I’ve never tumbled into full-blown depression but I am a needy f****r. I also have a high metabolism, so I need to work at remaining calm. That’s why I meditate.”

Burn is working on several projects, including a bio-play based on the life of Pinkerton, the Scot who founded the US detective agency. “I love to write every day,” he says. “It keeps the muscle working.”

He has no need to be famous, but he wants to be wanted. “I was up for a big movie recently and nearly got it. And it’s hard for an actor to take that rejection.

“I could plumb the depths which meant I’ve been an emotional rollercoaster, and this could be hard for anyone associated with me. But I’m gentler now. I’m not so up and down and not so desperate.”

Yet he can bring the big emotions to the surface when required.

“I once went up for an ad with Ken Russell, for frozen food where I had to get up and sing Food, Glorious Food. So I did this and he yelled out, ‘Bit OTT, darling!’ 

“I had to laugh that Ken reckoned I had gone too far.”

Moon Dogs (15) is out September 1.