Grey's Anatomy star Kevin McKidd has revealed he’s “really homesick” and been looking to work in Scotland for years.
Last year, the Elgin actor, 49, got his chance – for the first time in eight years – with the upcoming ITVX thriller Six Four in which he plays his first ever cop. It’s a dream come true for Kevin, who moved to America in 2008 after being cast as Dr Owen Hunt in Grey’s Anatomy.
Speaking to the Record via Zoom, Kevin admitted his homesickness got worse not being able to visit Scotland because of the pandemic. He said: “I’ve been looking to do a project in Scotland for a while. I’ve been really homesick.
“So it was lovely to be back working in Scotland. Six Four feels like coming home to the home team on home ground.”
After his breakout year in 1996 playing the doomed Tommy in Trainspotting and gang leader Malky in Small Faces, Kevin was a jobbing actor until finding international fame in Grey’s Anatomy. But the show – which he has directed 30 episodes of as well as starring in 300 of them – kept him mainly Stateside, although he was back 13 years ago for One Night in Emergency and more recently in 2015 for Sunset Song, but his part got cut.
He said: “I was the priest at the end and it got cut. So the last time before Six Four I worked in Scotland my part was cut.”
Luckily, that won’t happen in Six Four as he’s the main character, Detective Constable Chris O’Neill – a cop who has given up but finds his mojo when his private hell of a missing daughter is twisted round the cold case of another missing girl. It also stars Vinette Robinson as his wife Michelle and James Cosmo as the dad of the cold case missing girl.
Kevin is proud of the four episodes and hopes his dad Neil – a keen TV crime fan – will like it.
He said: “This has to pass the Neil McKidd test. My dad watches every cop and crime thriller you can imagine. So he knows every plot twist, turn and red herring.
“If my dad says by episode two, ‘I know what’s happening in this. I don’t need to watch this until the end’, then we’ve failed the Neil McKidd test. So I’m hoping...but I think we’ve passed the Neil McKidd test.”
The sign of any good TV cop is the familiarity of a piece of clothing, especially a coat – from Columbo’s raincoat to Vera’s trench coat. For Kevin’s O’Neill, he has a dowdy, lumpy green number that reflects how he feels at the start of the series.
Kevin said: “It took a lot to find that jacket. We tried 15 different coats. We needed O’Neill to look downtrodden. It was the kind of coat worn by a detective who’s given up. When we first meet Chris O’Neill, he’s lost his ambition, his spark, his drive.”
Surprisingly, it’s Kevin’s first ever detective. He added: “I don’t think we’ve seen a TV detective that’s given up. At the start, he’s checked out of his career and doesn’t give a s*** about anything.”
Kevin gets recognised a lot, which meant filming was often halted by fans, especially in scenes from the first episode where O’Neill is running after his wife around central Edinburgh and the Royal Mile. And in Glasgow, he was constantly getting heckled.
He said: “Taggart is my favourite Scottish cop. I grew up with him. We all did. So when we were filming in Glasgow and people leant out of their windows and would shout, ‘What are youse filming?’ I would joke, ‘We’re doing a remake of Taggart. Taggart’s Dad and I play the dad.”
Six Four is based on a Japanese book, which has been adapted by Gregory Burke, who told Kevin not to bother reading it as the Scottish version was more inspired by it rather than following it’s storyline. Kevin came to be cast after desperately looking for something he could film in Scotland.
He had a Scottish book he wanted to adapt and reached out to Gregory, who told him about Six Four. Kevin was immediately gripped by the script.
The father of four said: “The first scene is every parent’s worst nightmare. It was such a gut punch and was that hook that grabbed me.”
The opening scene of Six Four sees O’Neill and his wife at an Edinburgh morgue seeing if the body of a dead teenage girl is their missing daughter. It’s a powerful opening to the drama and continues when his wife runs away from him and catches a train back to London and her old life.
Initially, because of his Grey’s Anatomy filming, Kevin thought he would take the smaller part of O’Neill’s older brother Philip, who is about to be appointed the Chief Constable of the Scottish Police Service.
Kevin said: “I knew the dynamic of being the younger brother. I have a big brother who is five years senior to me. In our childhood, he was the star, the prodigal son, and I was the guy doing plays at school.
“My brother was a very talented football player. He was always going to be the one that rose up. I wasn’t the black sheep but people definitely couldn’t get a handle on what I was about.”
The series also dips its toe into the Indy debate with what seems to be a child abductor travelling in a car with a Better Together sticker on the back. Kevin said: “It’s Gregory being quite satirical about the state of affairs in Scottish politics.
“There’s so much going on right now in Scottish politics. Nicola Sturgeon just resigned – and for many valid reasons. Politics in general around the world is becoming a more dangerous place to be. So I don’t blame her.”
Kevin, who found it nice using his own accent, and not having to put on the American one he does as Hunt in Grey’s Anatomy, is hoping he’ll be back for a second series of Six Four.
He admitted: “There’s already rumblings.”
Six Four starts streaming on ITVX on March 30.
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