Paul Montague Cillian Murphy Assets: A financial and emotional investment in Melmotte's railway scheme. Prospects: the heart of Hetta Carbury or social disgrace if, as he suspects, Melmotte has made him one of a gang of swindlers. Dublin-based Cillian Murphy makes his debut in a leading television role as Paul Montague, the young engineer who dreams up the idea of a transcontinental railway, and who soon finds himself head-to-head with crooked financier Augustus Melmotte. "It's a brilliant story, very much a story for today," says Murphy. "Paul can see through a lot of this society stuff. All he wants to do is build the railway. He is frustrated by Melmotte and Melmotte is frustrated by him." Yet however honorable in business, Paul shows his human fallibility when the beautiful Mrs. Hurtle rides into town from America, claiming he was her lover and is still engaged to her. "It's been wonderful to work on. At the read-through I was terrified at the prospect because of the formidable presence of David Suchet. But when you start he's very generous. He raises your game; anyone that good raises your game. He's a lovely man and chilled out, too. I've never really done much in television before. I'm thrilled. I'm emotionally with Paul Montague, but I'm on entirely foreign ground playing an English role." Murphy's first feature film was Stephen Bradley's Barman Pat. He studied law before becoming an actor. A starring role in Disco Pigs (Arts Theatre/ Bush Theatre) was a landmark for the young actor. The production won Best Fringe Show at both the Dublin and Edinburgh festivals. "My aim, whether in television, film, or theatre, is to find good quality work with good quality people," he says. "I'd probably have been wealthier if I had stayed with law, but pretty miserable doing it." The Irish actor's ambition remains to play the "Irish Hamlet," Synge's The Playboy of the Western World.