Martin Freeman spent more than a year practising Liverpudlian accent for The Responder

Martin Freeman spent a year and a half practising the Liverpudlian accent in preparation for his TV show The Responder.

In the upcoming BBC drama, the Black Panther star plays urgent response police officer Chris as he completes six night shifts in a row in Liverpool.

The actor, who was born in Hampshire, was determined to nail an authentic Scouse accent and dedicated a lot of time to perfect it before filming began.

"I knew I had to take it very seriously so for a good year and a half I was just wandering about the house talking to myself in Scouse," he said on The Graham Norton Show. "As an outsider, I didn't want to go to Liverpool and mess up their accent - it was really important to me that I got away with it."

The five-part drama is written by former police officer Tony Schumacher and is based on his real experiences, and that was one of the aspects that appealed to Freeman about the project.

"It has a beautiful tone and a lovely pace. One of the things I do like in a script that doesn't feel like it was written by a committee. It does have a truly authored voice and I loved the tone of it," he explained.

Freeman's appearance on The Graham Norton Show airs on Friday night.

The Responder will be coming soon to BBC One and BBC iPlayer.