Why Endeavour and Vigil actor Shaun Evans is keeping his Liverpudlian accent for new MI5 thriller

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Shaun Evans has revealed the reason he maintained his Liverpool accent in his new ITV thriller, Betrayal. The series, which premieres this weekend, features the Endeavour and Vigil star as an MI5 officer alerted to an informant who could dismantle a criminal group in Stockport.

Unfortunately, the informant dies before revealing the information. When Evans’s character, John, kills the attacker to protect himself, he immediately becomes the subject of an internal investigation and faces questioning from his bosses.

John is finding it hard to stop obsessing over the case, and it’s causing problems in his marriage. He begins to suspect that the real danger might be coming from people he knows.

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Chris Evans recently explained his decision to use his natural accent for his character, John, noting that it helped emphasize the character’s background within British intelligence.

He told the Radio Times that while MI5 officers were traditionally expected to come from Oxford and Cambridge universities, that’s no longer true, as he thought about his own career path.

At the beginning of my career, I was drawn to roles that were very different from who I was, hoping to completely lose myself in a character and escape my personal issues.

He explained that it’s surprisingly more challenging to play a character with your natural accent. He likened it to the effort of putting on a heavy coat – you have to really work to transform and become someone else.

Evans has described his play, Betrayal, as being centered around a man experiencing a midlife crisis. He explained that the story focuses on a situation where things have fallen apart for the character John, and he’s searching for a path forward.

He’s experiencing difficulties in his personal relationship and is losing the professional respect he once had for being unconventional. His health is declining, and his overall influence is diminishing.

When you place that within the context of international spying, it creates a compelling story with two layers.

The series will feature talented actors including Romola Garai, known from Suffragette, Amuka-Bird from I, Jack Wright, Zahra Ahmadi of EastEnders, and Gamba Cole, who appears in The Outlaws.

Betrayal premieres on ITV1 on Sunday, 8 February at 9pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.

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2026-02-04 16:53