Will Sharpe is a very modern maestro

Will Sharpe is dressed in baggy all-black: jeans, hoodie and a cap embroidered in red with the words “love poems”. Love poems? That’s pure romantic catnip for fans of the 39-year-old actor, writer and director, who has emerged from the darkly comic shades of his early film and TV work to become a hot contender for most enigmatic leading man of our times.

Suggest this to Sharpe and he’d doubtless throw out a sceptical look from under that baseball cap. We are meeting in the parlour of…