You’ll be seeing a lot of Bradford-born actor John Hollingworth on TV in the next few weeks.

In the BBC2 series The Hour he plays an oily ITV executive in the Mad Men-style behind-the-scenes drama about British television in the 1950s Then, on November 27, if you happen to be near a radio tuned to Radio 4 at 2.15pm, you’ll be able to hear the former Bradford Grammar School rugger-playing head boy and Waterstone’s book seller, play nine different parts in actress Maxine Peake’s first radio play: Beryl: A Love Story on Two Wheels.

It’s based on the life and achievements of five-times world champion racing cyclist Beryl Burton. Members of Morley Cycling Club, for whom she raced, are in it too.

Between times you can see him on stage at West Yorkshire Playhouse in the Max Stafford-Clark anniversary revival of Our Country’s Good.

He has two roles in this popular drama set in the British colony of Australia in 1789: a poshly-spoken Governor and a Cockney Jewish thief – one of a boatload of criminal and political outcasts transported to the other side of the world.

And to think that when I last saw this engaging chap last year he was about to return to a London call centre for 14 weeks to try to chip off a bit more of the £29,000 bank loan he had accumulated from seven years of studying at Trinity College Dublin and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

“But then I knew I had the Batman job at the end of it,” he said disarmingly.

What started out as a few lines in the blockbuster movie, Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, quickly became more as director and writer Christopher Nolan was impressed by John’s character acting potential.

“He’s open to people improvising and throwing in lines. I had done my lines and was on my way to lunch when a runner came with a Hallmark birthday card and more lines written in it.

“‘Can you learn these lines by this afternoon?’ he said. I said ‘Brilliant!’ I ended up getting four scenes out of three lines.

“Chris Nolan said: ‘Look I may not use all of these’; but he did and it gave me a platform for other things. That’s how I got into The Hour and the opportunity to work with Max Stafford-Clark,” he said.

That’s also why film director Justin Hardy picked him for parts in two of his television films: London’s Burning, about the London riots, screened by Channel 4; and The Man Who Crossed Hitler, based on the true story of how a recklessly brave Jewish lawyer took Hitler to court in Berlin in 1932, screened on BBC2.

There’s more. Since The Deep Blue Sea, John proposed marriage to casting director Anna Cooper and was accepted. They are due to start their new roles as husband and wife in May.

And they’ve bought their first house in North West London. “That’s us for the next 30 years,” John added.

Our Country’s Good is on at West Yorkshire Playhouse until November 24. The box office number is (0113) 2137700.