The main stuff I was doing involved obviously looking into Catholic orphanages and things like that but it mainly involved coming up with Maps’ backstory. I wrote a couple of little essays from his point of view about how he would have grown up, things he would have done.

But a lot of my preparation involved music. Music is a big thing for me in my life and my career - it really helps me tap into things. So I made a couple of CDs that I actually gave to Rod [Hardy, the film’s director], songs that I felt represented certain stages of Maps’ psychology. It was quite dark...Elliott Smith and Willy Mason - lots of troubled, guitar-wielding singer-songwriters, really.

… after that, I’m out into the big, wide world. It will be strange. It will be very odd and I imagine I’ll be quite emotional about it. But in a way it’ll be welcome. When I was reading the last book, I realised "This is it, this is the last time I’ll take a journey with this character."

And I’ll admit it. I did cry a bit at the end.