Martin Compston has said he plans to get his Line of Duty co-stars out to Las Vegas on holiday, after warming to the city he now calls his second home. The actor's wife Tianna was born in Vegas, and he lives there between acting jobs, bringing up his son in the suburbs.
Line of Duty read-through planned
Speaking about his Line of Duty co-stars Adrian Dunbar and Vicky McClure, he said: “We keep threatening to have like a Line of Duty read through in Vegas,” adding that he has a number of bars and restaurants earmarked for them to visit when they eventually arrange to come out.
Living Las Vegas series
In the new Channel 4 documentary series Living Las Vegas, Compston admits Scotland would always be his home, but as a part-time resident he wanted to learn more about Vegas and connect more with somewhere he spends several months each year.
Explaining why he made the series, he said: “Greenock's always going to be my home, but that place has become a huge part of my life. So it was so lovely to experience it more and see different sides.”
He added: “It was a real joy to explore the city that way and meet interesting people. I live in suburbia, which is one of the reasons we did this is to explore the city a bit more. When I'm there, I do a lot of mundane stuff. Just being a dad. There's something quite comforting knowing somebody's having a good time down there. There's just a sense of excitement there.”
Working from home with family
On making the series, he said one bonus was that he could do it while working from home with his family, compared with previous travel shows he has made.
He said: “One of the big attractions with this, the guy sold me, is look, you'll be close to home, and you'll be close to the missus and the wee fella. So that was a big, big joy for that. Because genuinely, I think as an actor, I've done really well so far to avoid any reality shows and any f***ing panel shows. They all drive me mad, people just screaming to get attention, but I do love these. I am not a presenter, I think it is a skilled job, but I had a blast doing it.”
Speaking about his life in Vegas, he said: “We head up Lone Mountains. I kind of hear it's mountain, but it's a big hill! But I drop the wee fella at school, and I usually go there most mornings and hike up it, and because it's in a weird spot it's kind of the only point you can see like a 360 of Vegas, like everything around you from there. My wife loves horses, so I got to take her to a cowboy ranch, and that was a real treat.”
He added: “I feel like I'm pretty private. I've never put my son or anything online or anything. So you get a little flash of him running about on his three wheeler in the house, and we attempt to cook pizzas, which I miserably failed that in episode two, but I was like, it'd be nice to have her to be part of it. I asked her what she thought, and she was really excited to be part of it.”
Among his adventures, Compston visits a $25,000 hotel suite with its own basketball court and joins the water maintenance crew at the famous Bellagio fountains. He watches – and helps video – a British couple tie the knot at the Little White Wedding Chapel and also goes inside the Grand Canyon and rides horses cowboy style.
He also learns about newer areas in Vegas with small breweries and restaurants away from the strip in an arts district dubbed '18b' because it is around 18 blocks in size, which he says he continues to use now the series has finished filming.
Asked if the series had changed his opinion of Vegas, he added: “I've always thought it was a bit of a stopgap, and I thought like we're just going to get back to Scotland, but no, like I genuinely feel like I'm there for the long term now.”
Martin Compston: Living Las Vegas starts on Channel 4 on Wednesday September 24 at 10pm.
