Outlander Jamie Fraser actor Sam Heughan talks steamy sex scenes and why he would 'be a brilliant James Bond'

Sam Heughan has been linked with the James Bond role for several years now – and the Outlander star reckons he would make a great 007.

In a new interview to promote his racy new Channel 4 drama, The Couple Next Door, the Scottish actor said he would be a “brilliant Bond”, adding, “I’m good at action and I’d bring a lot of ­emotional intelligence.”

The 43-year-old, who shot to stardom playing highland warrior Jamie Fraser in Outlander, also opened up his experience filming intimate scenes for The Couple Next Door, alongside co-star Eleanor Tomlinson.

The series, due to air on Monday November 27, follows the arrival of new couple Evie and Pete on the block, setting in motion a chain of events that soon escalate and leave no party unscathed. The narrative centres on the increasingly tangled relationship between the couple and their next door neighbours, Danny and Becka. The quartet sees Poldark’s Tomlinson as Evie and Harry Potter’s Alfred Enoch as Pete, her partner. Heughan plays PC Danny Whitwell and The Secrets She Keeps’ Jessica De Gouw is his wife, Becka.

Speaking to press at the special Q&A event to mark the release of the six-parter, Heughan said: “[Intimacy coordinator] Vanessa, who I worked with on Outlander, is brilliant and she created an atmosphere and a safe space and a place for us to really inject more intimacy, or what appears to be more intimacy, without having to make people uncomfortable.

“I knew Vanessa was great, and had a really nice demeanour about her on set. I think we’ve both maybe struggled in the past with [sex] scenes, and how to portray them without giving away too much or feeling uncomfortable. It was great to push these scenes and make them feel intimate for the viewer without making it really difficult to shoot.”

Heughan recently revealed his favourite spot in Scotland is in Edinburgh, where he moved to with his family as a teenager. Asked for his favourite place in an interview, he opted for Mary King's Close, a supposedly haunted close underneath the streets of the Scottish capital.

The actor, who went to James Gillespie's High School in the city, described his visit there as a “terrifying” experience – adding that he adores Edinburgh as a whole. He went on to praise the city of Edinburgh, saying: “I just love that city, the wynds, the closes going off the Royal Mile, especially.

“The city underneath the city, which we actually shot in for Men in Kilts, it didn't make it to the edit, but Mary King's Close, when they had the city and it's still there, you can go, there's streets underneath there and shops and everything. It's terrifying.

“It's like something out of Harry Potter, it really is. And if you haven't been, please visit Edinburgh.”

It’s not the first time Heughan has waxed lyrical about Auld Reekie. In his memoir Waypoints, published last year, he opened up about his move to Edinburgh as a teenager – saying it was like a “like a whole new world” for him.