He renounced acting for activism, then had to start earning again. As he returns to TV, Sheen talks about life in isolation, politics and his curious encounter with the man he has portrayed more than any other

Michael Sheen is at home in south Wales, looking out on his garden. The sun catches the side of his face, lighting up his scraggly hair and beard. “We’re very lucky to have a garden to go out in. I know not everybody does,” he says. In the current climate of famous people churning out endless videos of their isolation struggles from the side of a pool in a mansion, it’s a telling sentiment.

A few years ago, after a successful stage and screen career, the actor, 51, “refocused” his life away from entertainment towards community work and activism, and moved back to Wales from Los Angeles. He had been living there for much of the past two decades, to be near his eldest daughter, Lily (her mother is the actor Kate Beckinsale, and they remain close). “And then when my daughter was 18 and went off to a life of her own, I realised: ‘Oh, I can go home again now.’”