'Older and uglier' Hugh Grant says his days in rom coms are behind him

Actor Hugh Grant, who has been the face of a number of romantic comedies in his career, says he is done with the genre as he has got "older and uglier".

The 57-year-old actor, who will next be seen as Liberal party leader Jeremy Thorpe in the BBC drama A Very English Scandal, said his days of playing the romantic hero are over.

Asked whether he would do more romcoms, he said: "That bird has flown."

"I've always tried to take whatever was the most entertaining thing in front of me at the time. And getting older and uglier has made the parts, you know, more varied," said Grant, known for rom-coms like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually and Two Weeks Notice to his credits.

"There used to be quite a big snobbery about, 'Oh, I'm a film star now, I don't do television' but that is eroding very fast. I saw (Robert) De Niro's now doing television," he told Radio Times.

The BBC series is an adaptation of John Preston's novel and tells the story of disgraced MP being tried and acquitted for conspiring to murder his ex-lover Norman Scott.

The three-part series, written by Russell T Davies and directed by Stephen Frears, will air on BBC 1 on May 20.