We’ve got a short interview with 24: Redemption star Robert Carlyle in the next issue of TV & Satellite Week, but there wasn’t nearly enough room in one page for everything he told us, so we’re putting the full transcript here for your enjoyment. Robert gives us a few hints about 24: Redemption, tells us about his old pal Kiefer, and also updates us on the other projects he’s got in the pipeline. Top geezer.

What’s the story of Redemption?
Redemption is a two-hour stand-alone piece that bridges the gap between Season 6 and Season 7 of 24. It tells you where Jack has been - he is an exile and he’s been wandering the world, through Afghanistan and several countries in the Middle-East. He ends up in the fictional country of Sangala to bed down with his old friend, Carl Benton.

Carl trained with Jack in the Special Services and turned his back on that world a long, long time ago. He explains why he turned his back on it all and you begin to think that Jack might find the same peace in his life and that his life might follow the same route. Carl is teaching in a school, trying to stop young kids being rounded up into tin-pot dictator armies so they can be used as cannon fodder.

Jack joins Carl in this mission but, in typical 24 style, the peace is pretty quickly disturbed. It all happens in real time over two hours and Jack’s faced with a massive dilemma at the end, deciding whether to go back to that 24 world or not. It’s not giving too much away to say he goes back, but how he gets back is very interesting. It’s a terrific dilemma.

So Carl Benton’s Jack’s buddy rather than his mentor?
They were considering making Carl his mentor in the original script and maybe using an older actor. It goes back to my relationship with Kiefer. We made a movie about eight years ago, got on really well and have always kept in touch. In fact, he was actually reading the very first 24 script when we did that film together. Through the years he’s been trying to get me to do 24. Last year I was going to join the show but I already had a couple of other things going on. This part was perfect though because Jack and Carl haven’t seen each other for about 10 years either. That was great as an actor to play on our own relationship.
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