Marc Warren has revealed he loves playing villains because he can use it as an excuse to vent all his anger at work.

The Hustle actor joins the cast of the BBC action drama – based on the book by Alexandre Dumas – as the new chief villain Comte De Rochefort, after Peter Capaldi stepped down as Cardinal Richelieu at the end of the first series to star in Doctor Who.

Marc Warren is villain Comte De Rochefort  in The Musketeers
Marc Warren is villain Comte De Rochefort in The Musketeers (BBC)

Marc said: “It’s always good playing a baddie. They’re easy to play and also if you get a bit annoyed during the day at other things you can just use it during the work! If you’re tired and angry you can channel it into the character.”

The 47-year-old actor also revealed he got the role in the 17th-century drama as he happened to be on holiday in Prague while they were filming the first series there.

The Musketeers
The Musketeers (BBC)

Marc explained: “I took seven months off last year and I was in Prague anyway, so I met up with Tom Burke [who plays Athos] a couple of times because he’s a friend of mine.

“I knew that he was doing The Musketeers and he said that there was probably going to be baddie part coming up; the main villain of the show for series two. So I’d expressed an interest in doing that, and I’d seen the show and liked the look of it. It was more a direction I wanted to go in career-wise, plus I really love Prague so it was a no-brainer really.”

The Musketeers, which also features Luke Pasqualino, Santiago Cabrera and Howard Charles as fellow musketeers D’Artagnan, Aramis and Porthos, returns to BBC One on January 2.