AN ACTOR raised and educated in Basingstoke plays a leading role in Jason Statham’s new film, Hummingbird.

In the movie, which was released last week, Christian Brassington plays the baddie Max Forrester, a sociopathic City boy who Statham's Joey, a flawed avenging angel, has to track down after Max commits a horrific crime.

Christian, who turned 30 in June, grew up in Basingstoke and attended the stage school run by his dad, well known local performer Colin Flaherty. He studied at QMC after leaving Brighton Hill Community School.

TV viewers will have seen him as Boris Johnson in When Boris Met Dave - and also as Tony Blair in artist Alison Jackson's Tony Blair: Rock Star. He has also appeared the films St Trinian’s 2 and Burke and Hare.

Speaking about his preparation for the role of Max, Christian previously said: “I tried to study City workers and how they held themselves. Having such beautiful suits made for my costume at Gieves and Hawkes on Saville Row helped a lot actually. You carry yourself differently when in a suit.

“It was about not playing the villainy. People who do evil things don’t go around laughing maniacally and rubbing their hands together; it’s often striking how ordinary those who do hideous things appeared to those around them.

“Max is a truly nasty piece of work. And one scene in particular was quite difficult to film. Thankfully the stunt-woman I was working with was fantastic throughout.”

Up next for him is independent British thriller called Two Days In The Smoke, starring Matt Di Angelo, which is currently in post-production.

He added: “There’ll be an exciting announcement about another film I’ve done called The Body (directed by Paul Davies) soon. And I’m writing a TV series and a film with the very talented Georgia Moffett.”

He also expressed delight at hearing about Red Carpet Screenings and the work of the filmmakers presently making their mark in Basingstoke: “I'm glad there's an artistic, and particularly film-based, groundswell happening in my home town!”

Hummingbird is in cinemas now. Follow Christian on Twitter @brassingtonc