David Morrissey wouldn't call himself controlling, but he does enjoy a certain amount of influence when signing up to a show.

"Sometimes, as an actor, you come in on the middle of a project and all of the writing has been done, and most of the decisions have been made before you get there," explains the 50-year-old, who's played a mass murderer in The Widowmaker, Gordon Brown in Peter Morgan's The Deal and an arcade owner in the BBC musical series, Blackpool.

"Then you leave a project early and it all gets edited together with music, so I was finding I liked being involved in all of the aspects really, and I like the collaborative nature of that."

It's why a couple of years back, he co-founded a production company with his friend, producer Jolyon Symonds.

"One of the first things we did was meet writers we wanted to work with, and top of that list was Danny Brocklehurst," says Morrissey, of the man whose credits include Accused and The Street.

"I've known and wanted to work with him for a long time, but we'd never got round to it, so we sat down, he had a few ideas, and this was the one that jumped out."

He's referring to The Driver, a three-part drama for the BBC in which Morrissey stars as taxi driver Vince McKee, a man who, frustrated with the monotony of life, accepts an offer to drive for a criminal gang.

"Vince has walked a straight and narrow line, paid his taxes and supported his family, but he slightly feels like he hasn't been rewarded for it. He's wondering where his prize is," says the Liverpool-born actor, who began his training at the city's Everyman Youth Theatre before enrolling at Rada.

Vince is introduced to the gang by Colin, a friend who's resurfaced after a six-year stretch in prison. He's played by Ian Hart, an old school pal of Morrissey's, who he previously worked with on the acclaimed 1983 TV series One Summer.

The actor fondly recalls a time when Hart travelled down to London to support him in his hour of need.

"I was 16 and working in a theatre company in Wolverhampton. I had no money, I was living in a bedsit, and it was my first time away from home. It wasn't that long after my dad had died either, and I hadn't really dealt with that, so I was quite miserable," recalls Morrissey, who wrote Hart a letter telling him as much.

"Soon after, I was in a rehearsal in this big warehouse and the door opened at the back. I remember thinking, 'God, that guy looks like Ian'.

He'd come to see me, and I'll always remember that."

It was during his visit that Hart revealed that dramatist, Willy Russell, was working on a new project, and "seeing everybody". That project was One Summer, and Morrissey returned to Liverpool and gatecrashed an audition.

"We later got the phone call saying we'd both got parts. It was a really great time, but slightly surreal, in the sense we were old enough to know this was special, but too young to enjoy it as much as we should have done."

Their shared history meant they could enjoy a shorthand on the set of The Driver, a project he describes as a "domestic drama".

"It's about a man who's struggling emotionally because his son is missing," reveals the father-of-three, who is married to novelist Esther Freud, daughter of artist, Lucian. "His wife [Claudie Blakley] doesn't want to talk about their son but Vince needs to, so he's not only in a financially troubling place, he's in an emotionally troubling place.

He's slightly lost and wondering what life's all about, really."

The offer of becoming a driver for gang leader The Horse (Colm Meaney) seems like an exciting proposition. "He's been given this opportunity, which he knows is the wrong side of the law, but his motivation to get involved with these people is to do with an adrenaline rush," explains Morrissey.

"The excitement of driving is what he needs as a man; what gives him his machismo back. It's not another woman or gambling, it's flirting with danger that makes him feel manly and part of life again. That is a very relatable thing for many people."

That first rush can determine the rest of your life, he adds. "And what my character does with that first rush really sends him on a handcart to hell."

The team were keen for the driving sequences to be as enthralling as their budget would allow - "so we're on that journey with Vince, and you feel the same rush, fear and relief he does," says Morrissey.

Although there are some impressive driving skills on show - which required professionals to step in - he says he thinks it's wrong to think of them as simply stunts. "What you do is go, 'Why do we need to see this happen?' Our stunts give Vince his mojo, which blinds him to his moral compass, because he's so excited by it. The audience have to be with him to understand what he's getting from it."

Morrissey loves the thrill of getting behind the wheel, but adds: "I love speed, but I'm not someone who looks at a car and goes, 'Woah'.

That's not my thing. I enjoy driving fast, but I couldn't tell you the cost of an Aston Martin. I'm not boysy in that way."

He had plenty of time to enjoy the open road while shooting the drama in Manchester, "just two-and-a-half hours up the road" from where he lives in London. "That north-south divide over such a small area is mad," he adds, laughing.

"I've worked in America [on zombie series The Walking Dead], and the distance people travel to work is unbelievable. We were having people commuting from New York."

He loves how well the industry is doing at the moment.

"I see it with my kids. They watch television in the same way that I used to listen to LPs. They'll watch something again and again, until they can quote it. I used to go to my bedroom and listen to albums again and again, and that was my source of conversation for everybody.

"TV's in a really healthy place," Morrissey adds. "A few years ago, we thought it was dying, so I'll be interested to see how that develops over the next decade."

EXTRA TIME - BIG SCREEN DRIVES  

* Drive (2011) - Hollywood heart-throb Ryan Gosling stars as the motoring world's version of the triple-threat (stuntman, mechanic and getaway driver) in this violent thriller.

* The Fast & Furious franchise (2001-present) - Vin Diesel leads the cast in this string of movies about illegal street driving.

* Cosmopolis (2012) - A brooding Robert Pattinson appears as billionaire Eric Packer, who conducts all his business, professional and personal, in the back of his limo.

* Rush (2013) - Ron Howard directs this movie about Formula One rivals James Hunt and Niki Lauda, played by Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl.

* Locke (2013) - Tom Hardy might be known for his physical performances, but he is bound to his car in this real-time thriller.

The Driver is a three-part drama beginning on BBC One on Tuesday, September 23