(Photo: Acorn TV)

Holding, a four-part adaptation of Graham Norton's debut novel, is coming to Acorn TV on Monday, March 6. Set in Duneen, a small town in West Cork, Ireland, it follows local police sergeant PJ Collins (Conleth Hill) as he investigates the first big-time case of his career. Ahead of its premiere, we're taking the opportunity to get to know Hill, a versatile and highly accomplished actor, a little bit better.

He was born and raised in Ballycastle, a seaside town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Hill has described himself as a "performance-oriented" child who was interested in acting from a young age. "The circus used to come to the field next to the house I lived in when I was a child until I was about seven. That would have been my first experience of lights and performance," he told The Arts Desk. "I would be a liar if I said I loved Shakespeare. At secondary school we did lots of Gilbert & Sullivan and [then I] went to art college for a year, took a year out, went to drama school and started work."

He played Lord Varys in Game of Thrones.

Hill appears in 46 episodes of the massive fantasy show as Varys, a courtier who pretends to be humble and unassuming, but is actually super-clued-up and one step ahead of his rivals. Because he shaved off his hair for the role, Hill has said that people often got "freaked out" when they saw him looking less than bald between seasons.

His younger brother Ronan Hill also worked on Game of Thrones.

Ronan is a production sound mixer who won no fewer than five Emmys for his work on the HBO show. His other sound mixing credits include Line of Duty, The Fall, and the Steve McQueen/Michael Fassbender movie Hunger.

He is an award-winning stage actor.

Hill has performed in dozens of stage productions since launching his acting career in the mid-1980s, mainly in London and Belfast, but also in New York. He has won two Olivier Awards – the top prize in British theater – and also has two Tony nominations to his name. These came in 2001, for his performance in the Irish black comedy play Stones in His Pockets, and in 2008, for his performance opposite Ciarán Hinds in another tragicomedy, The Seafarer​​​​.

He starred in a sitcom with Jennifer Saunders.

In 2007's The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle, Saunders portrays a fictional, Jerry Springer-style talk show host who is perhaps a little too desperate for success. Hill co-stars as Jared, her husband, a kept man who happens to be gay. And their dynamic is interesting, to say the least.

He also made a memorable guest appearance in Peter Kay's Car Share, a popular British comedy series.

Hill plays Elsie, a drunk co-worker of Kay's character John who is dressed as Smurfette. He had previously worked with Kay on Britain's Got the Pop Factor, a spoof of reality shows like Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor. 

Explaining his decision to cast Hill as Elsie, Kay said at the time: "Conleth and I became very good friends after I met him whilst I was in The Producers [in the West End]. I really think he's one of the funniest most naturally talented people I know. He had already played Geraldine's Mum in Britain's Got the Pop Factor, so I knew he could play a woman and I thought it'd be a lot of fun. Luckily he wasn't working on Game Of Thrones, so was able to do it."

More recently, he appeared in Hugh Laurie's Agatha Christie adaptation, Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

Hill plays Dr. Thomas, a golf-loving medic who is present when his caddy Bobby (Will Poulter) discovers a dead body. Soon enough, the previously good-natured doctor begins to suspect that his own life is in danger, too. As you'd expect from Agatha Christie, it's twisty, impossible-to-predict stuff. 

He enjoyed childhood holidays in beautiful West Cork, where Holding was filmed.

Though he grew up in Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., Hill has spent plenty of time across the border in the neighboring Republic of Ireland. "My dad used to drive from one end of the country to the other during the 1970s," he told the Irish Examiner. "And we'd go down to Cork and Kerry for our summer holidays. Loved the place, love the people. I was familiar with it. I wanted to do more. But [on Holding] you’d be working five days a week and then learning lines for the next week."

You can catch a glimpse of the lovely West Cork scenery in the trailer below.

Are you looking forward to watching Conleth Hill in Holding?