Ray Winstone in The Sweeney.

East Ender … Ray Winstone approaches law enforcement the old-fashioned way in The Sweeney.

It's 9am in London. ''I just got out of bed,'' growls Ray Winstone, who is facing a day getting in shape after a torrid holiday season. ''I've eaten and drunk myself to death,'' he continues. ''I'm actually trying to be a good boy but I don't know how long that's going to last. I'm thinking the pub opens about 12 so I might start the training tomorrow.''

The tough-guy actor, a London East Ender whose memorable movies have included Sexy Beast, The Proposition, The Departed, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Hugo and recently Noah with Russell Crowe, is living up to his reputation.

He does the same as Flying Squad detective Jack Regan in The Sweeney, the movie version of the hit 1970s British TV series about a hardcore police squad who do whatever it takes to bring crims to justice.

And no doubt he will still be growling in Noah, director Darren Aronofsky's follow-up to The Wrestler and Black Swan, due out next year. ''When I first heard it was Noah's Ark, I had a little giggle,'' Winstone says.

''Then when I was told I was up for Tubal-cain I laughed. Then when I heard Russell was playing Noah I laughed even louder.

''Then I spoke to Darren Aronofsky, who I think is a great director and, you know, this ain't going to be a bad film. And I've never seen Russell bad in a film, so you know you're in good company.''

While he has occasionally played softer roles - even the romantic lead in the little-seen comedy Fanny and Elvis - Winstone's movie career has been built on such uncompromising parts as an abusive husband in Nil by Mouth, a father who sexually assaults his daughter in The War Zone and a brutal lawman in The Proposition.

''Sometimes you take the part because you need to pay the taxman or pay the rent,'' he says. ''It's called going to work. But you try to bring something to it. You try to find some way of making it interesting, not just for you but for an audience as well.''

In The Sweeney, Winstone takes on a role made famous by John Thaw in a TV series that was one of Winstone's first acting jobs, in 1976. As a teenager - already an amateur boxer who had been expelled from high school - he was credited as Youth in a non-speaking role.

''I turned up on set in the Red Cow in Hammersmith and there was all these iconic characters around that were the big stars of the day,'' he says. Rather than be overawed, Winstone ran into trouble for being too mouthy.

''I was sitting there when a geezer was buying a gun and I started saying, 'That one there' - like improvising and all that. They kept asking me to be quiet. I didn't know what it was all about. I thought it was just like having a laugh.


In the movie, directed by Nick Love (The Football Factory, The Firm) and co-starring hip-hop singer and filmmaker Ben Drew (Plan B), Regan is a dinosaur from another era of policing who drinks heavily, sleeps with his superior's wife, steals gold ingots from a crime scene to pay for information and growls old-school phrases such as ''Nobody takes liberties on my patch'' and ''You're nicked''.

Winstone reckons he didn't need to talk to the real-life Flying Squad to research the role.

''I've had 56 years' knowledge of The Sweeney one way or another over the years. The interesting information is when you talk to the villains [about them].

''What it was like to be lying in bed at four o'clock in the morning and the door's kicked in and you're got by the scrag of the neck, dragged out and battered a little bit and taken away.

''I spoke to a lot of villains and ex-villains, if there's such a thing as an ex-villain.

''Nine times out of 10 they'd say that when the Sweeney was after you, you knew you were in trouble.''

So how will Noah, that great biblical story, work for a contemporary audience?

''I'm going to be really arty now,'' Winstone warns. ''Bear with me. It's set back in the time but it's quite relevant to what man is doing to the planet today. It's a biblical piece, of course, but it's blood-and-guts as well.

''It's what man does to man and what he does to his planet.'' Pause.

''That's my artistic bit for the day.''

The Sweeney is in cinemas now.