MARTIN Compston might just be the only man in the world who heads to Las Vegas for the quiet life.
The Scots actor splits his life between the Nevada nightlife capital and his home town of Greenock.
On this side of the Atlantic, he’s one of the country’s busiest actors, working on hit shows such as Line of Duty and Mayflies.
But when he’s not on camera, he heads to Vegas, the home town of wife Tianna, where his days revolve around school runs and dog-walking as a regular suburban dad to their son.
But thanks to his busy TV and film schedule, Compston, 42, still feels like he’s hardly seen the place.
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“I do find it funny getting on the plane heading back to Scotland, I’m usually sitting back and having a wee glass of Champagne, while everybody around me is broken. And when I came back last Monday, I was in need of a kip while everyone else was excited they’re going to Vegas,” he said.
“We’re very lucky that we have two homes. My work is in the UK, so I spend most of my time there. The main reason we got a place here is because my wife’s from here and wanted somewhere close to her family. With work, I’m often away from home and my wife has her own career here, so it made sense for this to be a base.
“By the time I get back here I’m like a hermit, I just want to stay in the house and be a dad.”
While he’s spent most of the last decade chilling in Vegas, Compston decided he needed to get to know his home town better – so took on a series of challenges and behind-the-scenes tours to see a different side of sin city for new travelogue series Martin Compston: Living Las Vegas.
For the new show launching on Channel 4 this week, Compston spent time with Vegas legend Wayne Newton and Scots drag superstar Lawrence Chaney. He also went behind the scenes at the world-famous Bellagio hotel fountains, as seen in Ocean’s 11, and hotel villas that have their own basketball court in the back.
He teamed up with producer David Marshall, who he worked with on the Martin Compston Fling travelogue series where he and pal Phil MacHugh travelled around Scotland, and then Norway.
Compston revealed: “I was speaking with David about Vegas and everybody thinks I’ve got this mad life and live up on the strip. He said ‘Maybe it’s time you explored the place a bit’.
“So I’m starting to realise that Vegas is going to be in my life a lot longer than anticipated, so the show was more to do that and I’m really glad I did. I’m under no illusion how lucky I am to get to do some of the things that the programme enabled me to do.”
And even though he has lived in Nevada off and on for close to a decade, he also made his first visit to the nearby Grand Canyon.
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“It’s also about what’s on your doorstep with Arizona and Utah and California, and I’d never went to the Grand Canyon,” Compston explained.
“We went to a part of the Grand Canyon which is owned by the Walopai tribe, and it was incredible to see what it meant to them, and the hardship they’ve went through but how the canyon is still looking after them – there’s that incredible skywalk.
“The Canyon was overwhelming. It’s just endless, and you stand on the edges and you look down and there’s helicopters flying what feels like miles below you.
“Sonia, who took me around, was telling me that every rock and stone is sacred, and people would take a stone home as a souvenir, but they always get them mailed back because people start getting bad luck.”
When he’s not filming in Vegas, one of his favourite things about living in the US is relative anonymity.
He now enjoys the bonus of having his biggest fanbase several thousand miles away but admits that’s changing as more and more shows end up on worldwide streamers.
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He always knows the moment people wonder where they’ve seen him before – even if the accent doesn’t match characters like DI Steve Arnott from Line of Duty.
“It’s funny when you’re at things, whether it be a gym class or something with the kids because everybody Googles everybody and you come back the next time they’ll just look at you slightly differently,” the actor said.
“But for the most part here you know it’s just a novelty more than anything.”
Ahead of the biggest TV return of the coming year, there’s a fair chance Compston might be getting Googled at the gym class even more than usual.
The actor has just completed filming of the long-awaited season seven of Jed Mercurio’s much-loved police corruption series Line Of Duty, the must-watch TV phenomenon returning to screens next year.
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And it sounds like the Scot is as excited about the comeback as the fans, especially as he got to work with a proper hero: “I don’t want to sound like a band flogging their new album, because he [Jed] has had time, I mean, it’s been five, six years, he’s fully formed the story.
“We’ve got brilliant returning cast like Mark Bonnar and Owen Teale, but then having Bobby Carlyle as the new lead. That’s my dream come true, he’s been such an influence on me – that episode of Cracker, and Trainspotting.
“I was lucky enough that he cast me in his film [directorial debut The Legend Of Barney Thompson] but I’ve never spent any real time with him, and he’s just the kindest and most patient, and mind blowing to watch up close.
“But at times I’ve had to catch myself because I’d be doing scenes with him, and I’ve been going, ‘Oh hell, this is Bobby Carlyle in full flight here’, and then, I’m like ‘Oh s**t, it’s your line next!’.”
Martin Compston: Living Las Vegas is on Channel 4, September 23
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