09 February 2023 , 09:43
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James Norton's terrifying stint as Tommy Lee Royce came to an explosive conclusion on Sunday as the Happy Valley villain set himself alight in the series finale.
The dramatic scenes couldn't be any further from some of his acting roles earlier in his career.
The Cambridge-educated actor stripped naked to star alongside Only Fools and Horses star Tessa Peake-Jones to play a hippy in 2014 film Bonobo.
In a series of stills taken from the film, James can be seen in a yoga pose completely naked with his leg strategically covering his modesty and in another he's doing naked handstands in a garden.
James Norton stripped naked for the role in 2014 film Bonobo (Fable Films)The 2014 film centres around a middle-aged widow attempting to convince her daughter to leave an alternative widow.
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The James Bond contender has enjoyed success in Grantchester, War and Peace and McMafia.
James opened up on his passion for acting starting a young age to Phoenix magazine in 2013.
"I acted all through school and when friends came over to my house to play football I would force them to write a script and we would do all of these annoying plays in the bay window," he said.
James Norton starred alongside Tessa Peake-Jones in the film (Fable Films)"My friends would dread coming. I was one of those precocious kids who would write, direct and star," James continued.
"I acted throughout school and university but I was too afraid to say that it was my ambition and I thought it would never happen.
"I was lucky enough to go to Cambridge and do Footlights and while I was there I applied to drama school. By that point, I realised that what was once a far-fetched dream became a reality."
James Norton's nude role is a far cry from Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley (Fable Films)His first acting role was as a clown in a university production of Circus and he later starred in a production of Julian Mitchell's Another Country playing Guy Bennett, the only openly-gay student at a British public school.
James' Happy Valley demise was watched by 7.52 million people on Sunday.
The actor praised writer Sally Wainwright for his final scenes bringing the cat-and-mouse chase between himself and Sgt Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) to an end.
James Norton wasn't afraid to bare all early on in his career (Fable Films)He told GQ: "The ending was sort of perfect, in a Sally Wainwright sort of way. It was fireworks but it wasn’t fireworks. It was sitting over a kitchen table and that is where Happy Valley really thrived.
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"That’s the heart of the whole show. Cups of tea over kitchen tables in kitchens in Yorkshire. It’s not a big stunt set pieces on wires and jumping off cliffs, and guns and fireworks. It’s gentle, it’s domestic, it’s human."