Oxford-born actor Hugh Laurie is starring as a corrupt Tory politician in a new primetime drama on BBC One.

Roadkill launched on Sunday and the star of medical drama House takes the lead role as Peter Laurence, a self-made charismatic minister, whose career and personal life starts to unravel following a libel case.

The actor is supported by a cast packed with well-known names including Helen McCrory, Sidse Babett Knudsen and Saskia Reeves and the drama runs for four hour-long episodes.

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Mr Laurie was brought up in the city as his father Dr Ran Laurie was a GP in Blackbird Leys, and was made CBE for services to drama in the New Years' Honours List in 2017.

He was born in Oxford in 1959 and was educated at Dragon School in North Oxford between the ages of seven and 13, before going to Eton College and then Cambridge University.

It was there, as the president of the university’s renowned Footlights amateur dramatics club, that he met Stephen Fry and, shortly after, a professional partnership was born.

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Fry and Laurie’s stage success led to their TV sketch show Alfresco, which also featured the likes of their friend and Laurie’s one-time partner Emma Thompson, Ben Elton and Robbie Coltrane.

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His comedy prowess was further boosted by his role in Blackadder as the amiable idiot George in the third and fourth series of the hit sitcom in the late 1980s.

On the big screen, Mr Laurie has appeared in films such as Peter’s Friends, Maybe Baby, Sense And Sensibility, 101 Dalmatians, The Man In The Iron Mask, The Borrowers and Stuart Little and its sequel.

In 2004, his star status grew even more when he landed the leading role in US medical series House.

His portrayal of the unconventional and antisocial Dr Gregory House won him a host of top industry prizes, including Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild awards and People’s Choice awards, as well as a handful of Emmy nominations.

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It transformed him into an international heart-throb and in 2006 he was named ‘TV’s sexiest man’ by a US magazine.

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Away from acting, Mr Laurie’s debut novel The Gun Seller was a hit following its release in 1996.

In recent years, Mr Laurie – a skilled musician who can play the piano and drums among other instruments – has entertained a whole new fan base with his musical efforts.

He has released two successful blues albums, both of which reached the top three in the UK charts: 2011’s Let Them Talk and 2013’s Didn’t It Rain.Last year 

Last year the actor, writer and musician spoke with Mariella Frostrup at the Edinburgh TV Festival, where he received an award for outstanding achievement in a varied career which has spanned light comedy and dark drama.

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The actor said the power of his profession was under threat from partisan approaches to politics and facts.

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He said: "Storytelling requires a consensus of some kind.

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"If you start feeling an audience fracturing, starting to think completely different things about the same piece of information, that makes storytelling very hard."

Celebrated dramatist David Hare wrote the screenplay for Roadkill, with Michael Keillor the director.