Mel Gibson feels that BBC drama, Edge Of Darkness, starring Bob Peck, was the best TV he saw in the Eighties. Steve Pratt reports on the bid to turn a small screen classic into a movie.

MEL Gibson well remembers watching the BBC TV series Edge Of Darkness back in the Eighties. “It really blew my mind,” says the star of movie hits like Braveheart, Lethal Weapon and Mad Max.

“I watched it and was like, ‘wow’. I was left with my mouth hanging open. I think it’s the best TV I saw in that decade.”

Now Gibson returns to the screen after a six-year absence – during which time his private life has attracted more attention that his acting – in a contemporary cinematic version of the same story directed by the original series director Martin Campbell.

The story finds Gibson as detective Thomas Craven who discovers his daughter’s secret life after she’s shot dead leaving his house. He embarks on a mission to fight the corrupt system that led to her death.

He admits it was a tall order to make an updated version in a two-hour time frame. “But I felt good about it as Martin Campbell was doing it again and it was the same team having another look at it. I think it holds its own, which is good,” he says.

He made a conscious decision to step back from acting and concentrate on directing because seven or eight years ago he felt he was getting stale “in the arena that I occupied”.

“I decided to step out of it for a while and just change hats and then go for some different things. Now I just felt it was time to come back because if you spend that long away you’re going to change.

“Time and maturity and oxidation and all of the little things take hold of you, you’ll come back and make different decisions than what you had seven or eight years earlier.

“And, God willing, if I go on and do the same, just keep moving because once you stand still in an area, it’s maybe a little dangerous. So you have almost to impose a penalty on yourself and walk away for a little while or you can walk into that groove where it doesn’t mean anything after a while, except a pay cheque, which is not what you’re really after.”

Coming back to a big role seemed “pretty matter of fact”, says Gibson. “You’re much more relaxed. It’s pretty much as I remembered it as far as just the mechanics of it. It’s kind of like riding a bicycle except that you bring more time, more experience and a fresh voice to the party.”

But what was it like going back, as a director himself, to be directed by someone else? The main thing you have to bring, he feels, is empathy for the director. “It’s like you look at the guy and go ‘poor b*****d’ because they run you ragged.

And, of course, your job is to help him achieve what his vision is, but the workload seems less – and indeed it is because you’re a component in the process of storytelling whereas with the other gig, you’ve got to be on 24/7.”

Gibson has a fight scene in Edge Of Darkness against a younger opponent and if you think he looks winded, you’d be right – he was. “I was like trying to catch my breath and hey, it’s tough,” he says.

“That kid was strong and he’s half my age – and he had to let me win. It was like ‘whew, he’s a handful’. So you don’t bounce back as quick as normal. I mean I had a couple of sore days after that one.

“You’re knocked around but it’s fun, I like making the image, it’s worth it for that. As long as you’ve got a good bone man afterwards that can reset you because you need a chiropractor and someone to put your neck back because you get knocked around and you don’t bounce back as fast.

“It’s like I used to do this stuff off the side 25 years ago, no problem. Now it’s like ‘owww, I think I’ll just crawl under the couch.”

The Craven character is driven by terrible grief as a father who’s lost a daughter in the most violent way. Gibson could relate to that. “I’ve got grandchildren and you’re looking at that – I’m looking at my daughter and my sons kind of step into that place where I’ve been, as responsible adults, and man, they’ve turned out okay. I’m going to have to shuffle off one of these days so this is what I’ve done to hand it on to them. It’s the idea of natural progression and most of us want to hand on these good things to our children.

“To have that taken away , like the guy in this story does, and lose that natural thing like that would have to change your perspective on the world and your whole existence.

“That’s what I found very interesting about the script and the core of it is pretty emotional, so it doesn’t turn into a Charlie Bronson revenge movie but actually means something.”

■ Edge Of Darkness (15) opens in cinemas tomorrow