Peter Capaldi’s long and rocky road to success

Thanks to his brilliant performance in the political satire The Thick of It (and its film spin-off), Peter Capaldi is in demand, says John Millar in the Mail on Sunday. But success has been a long time coming. His first major role was back in 1983, in Local Hero. It could have made him a star – but it didn't.

Then, in 1995, he won an Oscar for his short film, Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life. "For the next couple of weeks I was invited to every big Hollywood party. But it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I'd find myself at some swanky do being introduced to Al Pacino and realising I had nothing to say to him beyond 'I admire your work'."

Returning to London, Capaldi continued plugging away at writing scripts until at length Miramax expressed interest in one of them. "I flew out from Heathrow having been assured that this was a goer. Unbeknownst to me, the project was cancelled while I was up in the air. I landed in New York and took a cab to the company's HQ, imagining the popping of champagne corks and the handing over of a very large cheque.

"I gave the cab driver a massive tip and marched into the building. Within 30 seconds I'd learned that it was all off. So I got back into the cab. The driver felt so sorry for me he gave me back the tip. Then I returned to London to direct dog food commercials." ·