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Bill Paterson plays Dr Douglas Monaghan

As head of the parapsychology unit Dr Douglas Monaghan provides us with our patriarch for the show - astute, dependable and compassionate, he has a fatherly air about him.

It's his mission to care for those who are troubled and confused, and to find a way to help them.

A gifted academic who is respected by his team and the public alike, it's the pursuit of the unexplained that drives him.

"He's one of the good guys," says Bill. "I can relate to his passion although I don't follow the paranormal very much myself. Monaghan has an open mind and I'd like to think that's how I would behave in the same circumstances."

But Bill does admit to having had a few real-life mysterious experiences - including an almost telepathic relationship with his opera designer wife, Hildegard.

He says: "I'm not a psychic person or one of life's fantasists, but we are always thinking exactly the same thing at the same time or trying to ring each other at the same moment. It's almost embarrassing.

"But I know many people experience something like that and the temptation is to no longer believe it is coincidence, but that something else otherworldly is going on.

"I know actors who are hugely into the paranormal but I tend to be more practical than that. I'm more interested in the geology and the geography of the planet.

"But I'm not unaware of how utterly fascinated people are by the paranormal and I would never totally close my mind to it."

The Comfort & Joy star had a huge reaction to the first series of Sea Of Souls and is proud of its broad appeal.

"People are fascinated with the paranormal and issues of reality. We are living in a non-religious age but people are still trying to find extra terrestrial reasons for why things happen.

"Formal religion is the greatest psychic superstition of all and in the absence of that people often look for alternatives about lives continuing and messages coming from beyond the grave," explains Bill.

"But I don't think that's a new thing. I think even at the height of the Victorian age there was a great interest in the psychic world.

"These kind of stories are endless. They are built into the human psyche, so it's a good thing for us to tap into.

"When people ask me what I'm working on and I say Sea Of Souls, quite a wide spectrum of people go, 'Oh yeah, I really liked that' which I find very heartening."

This time Monaghan is surrounded by a new and enthusiastic team, desperate to impress him.

Bill says: "Douglas Monaghan likes working with new students and training them up. That's a part of his job he really enjoys.

"He admires that youthful input of bravado and risk-taking that Craig brings to the unit and he really likes Justine. She's intelligent, quite tenacious and something of a risk-taker - like Monaghan.

"I think he's aware of a bit of competition between them for his attentions, but he won't tolerate squabbles in his department."

In the second series Monaghan is forced to question his famed academic neutrality when he becomes involved in his own life or death situation.

"Someone like Monaghan tries to stay drastically clear of psychic activity in his day-to-day life. He doesn't want to have to take his work home with him.

"So when this scenario rears its ugly head it's enough to stop him in his tracks. It makes him lose a certain amount of his academic detachment and gives him more than an insight into the extremities of the psychic world."

Despite living in London since 1980, Bill still feels a real connection with his home town of Glasgow, where Sea Of Souls is predominantly filmed.

"The longest period of time I have spent in Glasgow for many years has been filming this show and I still feel at home here. People stop me in the street and tell me they think I am doing well, which is lovely.

"However, one of the most frightening things is that you start to see faces you haven't seen for 15 or 20 years. They don't look the same and I certainly don't look the same and that's quite disturbing when you are in your home town. It makes you realise how quickly time passes and that none of us are getting any younger…" he groans, with a grin.

After a three year stint as a quantity surveyor, Bill escaped to the teaching course at the city's Royal Scottish Academy Of Music And Drama.

He was about to take up a teaching position when the phone rang - it was an offer to join the Citizen's Theatre.

He hasn't stopped working since, quietly becoming one of Scotland's most popular and respected actors in the likes of Comfort & Joy; The Killing Fields; Smiley's People; Auf Wiedersehen, Pet; The Crow Road and Rebel Heart.

Next, Bill's about to begin filming Rag Tag - a comedy drama set in the newspaper business co-starring Rupert Graves, Kerry Fox and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

"I'm playing a tabloid news editor who has just realised that the news part of a paper is not especially challenging to him anymore so he starts to just make it up.

"He's quite jaded but at the same time he's the life and soul of the party, which is unusual for me as I do tend to be cast as the dour serious-minded one.

"He's always coming up with lots of one-liners, so after the broodiness of Sea Of Souls I'll have to work hard and get my comedy hat on," laughs Bill.