Get the latest gossip

Rebus star Richard Rankin: Why he changed his name, his famous ex, actor brother, and the role that got him noticed

Richard Rankin is perhaps most famous for playing Roger Wakefield in Outlander, but he's about to make his name as DS John Rebus...

Those who are familiar with the famous detective will know he’s a hardboiled Edinburgh cop with a tendency to bend the rules… First born in Ian Rankin’s books, the character has subsequently been portrayed on TV several times before. Ian Rankin himself described him in his diaries as “a troubled, brooding soul and a cynical loner who can find no solace in faith, who’s obsessed with work, and happiest when propping up the bar of his favourite pub”. At odds with a job increasingly driven by corporate technocrats, involved in a toxic affair he knows he needs to end, and all but supplanted in his daughter’s life by his ex-wife’s wealthy new husband, Rebus begins to wonder if he still has a role to play – either as a family man or a police officer.

Get the Android app