Steve Coogan does not "want to be part of the British establishment"

The comedy star - whose mother was born in Ireland - told Sky News: "I don't feel fully like I want to be part of the British establishment because I feel like, you know, I'm not a royalist by any amount because I see them as a symbol of a sort of colonial approach to the world of which the Irish were nationally victims, historically, and that stuff matters in the way you view things.

"It served me well, I think. I like the feeling of being outside the establishment and having an Irish heritage helps with that. I think it's good creatively not to feel too close to what I would call the British establishment."

Steve plays former Irish soccer coach Mick McCarthy, who was born in England, in his new film Saipan. And the actor admits that Mick's heritage actually attracted him to the role.

He explained: "Mick McCarthy, who I play, played for Ireland and managed the Irish team, but there's still, because you sound English, there's that whiff of, you're not really one of us, and you sound like the people who colonised us and there's a residue of that. However, that doesn't fully go away, I suppose, and all that interests me very much.

"I think I understand because I am that, but in terms of the story that we're telling is the whole idea of people who are Irish, how they feel about that and how they present that to the world. There's that aspect of it, there's also the aspect of how you conduct yourself as an individual, but that idea of national identity, I found really interesting about the film."