“It was pretty easy to smile on the way to work. It was extraordinary filming in Cinecittà”, he said of the role last week.

“The bizarre thing was when I finished Domina, I kind of said to myself, ‘I think I’m going to take a couple of months off because I’d been doing a lot of work and a lot of running and I was eight years on Game of Thrones’. So, when the lockdown happened, I was kind of in the frame of mind.”

In the following weeks, he watched on, appalled, with the rest of the world as Italy became the first European country to become engulfed by Covid-19, but it did give him the unexpected gift of stolen time with his three grown-up children.

“My three kids are here, and my daughter’s fiance lives with us, and they’re kind of at the age where they’re about to flee the nest. I kind of got them for a year that I sort of shouldn’t have. I’ve been lucky, nobody in my family has passed away or been seriously sick.”

When asked if any of his children were into acting, he said “No, thank Christ” before proudly listing their professions in the worlds of video games, cheffing and IT.

On a Zoom call last week from his Dublin home, the plain-speaking star was thankful he does not have a few more zeros at the end of his mortgage.

“I live a simple life. Thank Christ, I didn’t get some huge mortgage out in Killiney or somewhere like that. I’ve been in the same gaff for decades,” he said. “I had a bit of a war chest that I could dip into, like a lot of people dipping into their savings. But you know, I don’t live extravagantly so it’s been OK.”

Domina, which plays with light and shadow in beautifully shot sequences, does not shy away from the sex and bloody violence synonymous with the Roman Empire, but it is all viewed through the feminist prism of the main female character, Livia.

Played by Nadia Parkes, Livia first appears as a luminous 15-year-old on the eve of her wedding to her cousin, Tiberius Nero.

Julius Caesar was murdered two years earlier and Rome stands on the brink of civil war between those who support his assassins and those who wish to avenge his death, with Cunningham’s principled toga-wearing character, Livius, staying true to the ideologies of the Republic.

“I just thought it was a really clever idea from a dramatic point of view to see this macho world told from the perspective of the first woman empress”, Cunningham said.

“My responsibility as Livius, the father of Livia, was showing the relationship that they had. And it takes a couple of reads of the script to realise that the guy who is in a toga and is all very powerful is a single parent.

"He has this incredibly clever child, who he treats as an equal. He teaches her how to sword fight, he teaches the ways of finding your feet around an incredibly patriarchal society.”

The actor laughs at the observation there is something about him that makes him very believable playing inherently decent, honourable characters on our screens.

“I have played many a baddie and killer and murderer. I know I’ve a face like a well-slapped arse, but I think there’s probably a little bit to the Game of Thrones thing where Davos Seaworth is an honourable man in a nest of vipers and all that sort of stuff.

“So I’m kind of looking for a baddie next. I want to play somebody horrible so I can get everybody to hate me again, that would be nice.”

Cunningham, who has a huge body of award-winning films including The Wind That Shakes the Barley, The Guard and Hunger, did not have any hesitation in taking a historical role in the Sky original series in the wake of Game of Thrones, although he has also played a bank robber and a scientist since exiting the world of Westeros.

“As an actor, I look for a story worth telling. I’m Irish, it’s in our blood. You look for a good yarn and this was a really good yarn,” he said.

His role as a reclusive Ebola expert opposite Julianna Margulies in the recent drama, Hot Zone, which centres on the race to stop Ebola invading the US, meant he was more aware than most of the rest of the world of the terrifying repercussions of Covid-19 when the news first broke.

“I played an expert in pathogens, so obviously I’d done some research into that, so it was really weird when this happened, because there was a similar thing on a smaller scale with the Ebola thing,” he said.

“It was interesting to see the CDC being involved and names I had come across being in this committee in Washington and all that sort of stuff.”

While the nation’s favourite pastime is grumbling about the weather, Cunningham raised eyebrows in his charming Tourism Ireland video earlier this year when he admitted to missing the rain when he is out of the country.

“I do,” he said. “It doesn’t take long. That’s one of the reasons I don’t go to LA — they’ve no seasons. It’s kind of soulless and heartless.”

Despite regular appearances on American chat shows and on the red carpet, he is the most relatable of Irish stars, in part thanks to his clear attachment to his native city.,"

“We go into the centre of town and you bump into your mates,” he said.

"I walk along the street and I’m bumping into people all the time, and I love that. Dublin, I love, especially.

"I still do love the airport, I still get cabin fever and I still want to get on an aeroplane and leg it.

"But I’m happy at the airport, I’m happy going away and I’m happy when I arrive back”

Perhaps surprisingly, the no-nonsense actor is an active social media user, but, unsurprisingly, he uses the platform to champion causes close to his heart.

“With social media you have a voice,” he said.

“Listen, it’s not anything to do with me being gorgeous, I’ve over a million followers between Instagram and Twitter, and the media leaves a little bit to be desired as regards injustice, especially in the Middle East, so to assist in giving the downtrodden a voice is a privilege and you should do it.”

It could be the reason he is so believable as the inherently decent characters he plays on screen.

All episodes of Domina are available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV

Sunday Independent