The actor who made audiences flinch as Begbie in Trainspotting has spent the past decade and a half living quietly in Canada, while insisting Glasgow will always be home. In a September 2025 BBC interview, he said he has spent most of the past 15 years there, keeping a family home in the city where he grew up, between his new drama The Hack and his long-held roots in Scotland.
Born: 14 April 1961 ·
Birthplace: Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland ·
Occupation: Actor ·
Years active: 1982–present ·
Notable films: Trainspotting, The Full Monty, The World Is Not Enough
Quick snapshot
- Born 14 April 1961 and raised in Maryhill, Glasgow (BBC News)
- Has spent most of the past 15 years living in Canada (BBC News) (BBC News)
- Moved to Vancouver with his wife and three daughters around 2008 (Irish Examiner)
- Whether he and David Tennant are close off-screen; neither actor has publicly detailed the friendship
- Which actors fill the supporting cast of The Hack, including the role of Max Clifford
- Exact filming locations for The Hack, which have not been fully disclosed
- Whether the 2027 Watson listing will go into production as listed
- The exact year of his family’s move to Vancouver is ambiguous (reports vary between 2008 and 2010)
- Moved to Vancouver for Once Upon a Time, a series that ended in 2018 (BBC News) (Sky News)
- By 2020 he had been in Vancouver for roughly a decade (Sky News)
- By 2023 he was still travelling back and forth between Canada and Scotland (Daily Record)
- A 2027 TV series, Watson, with six episodes listed on his IMDb profile
- A possible return to Scotland once his children finish their education (Sky News)
- Continued TV work following Once Upon a Time and The Hack
Eight facts, one pattern: Carlyle’s roots are entirely Glasgow, while his working life has been split across the Atlantic for years.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 14 April 1961 |
| Birthplace | Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Notable works | Trainspotting (1996), The Full Monty (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999) |
| Recent TV | Once Upon a Time; The Hack (2025) |
| Family | Wife and three daughters; family relocated to Vancouver together (Irish Examiner) |
| Current base | Vancouver, Canada, with a family home in Glasgow (Big Issue) |
What does Robert Carlyle do now?
Carlyle has not stepped away from acting, but his public profile is quieter than it was in the 1990s. The most recent chapter involves a return to British television and a 2027 project still listed as upcoming.
Current film and TV projects
- His highest-profile recent credit is The Hack, the drama series about the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, in which he plays Dave Cook, a former Metropolitan Police detective (BBC News).
- In 2023 he was appointed OBE, a recognition that followed decades of stage and screen work.
- That same year, he gave the Big Issue (UK social-enterprise magazine) an interview centred on the continued political edge of The Full Monty.
Upcoming role in Watson
- According to his IMDb listing, Carlyle is attached to Watson, a six-episode TV series dated 2027, in the role of Sherlock Holmes.
- The project was reported in 2024 and has not yet been given a confirmed broadcast date in the sources reviewed.
- If the listing holds, it would be his first Sherlock Holmes role and a new kind of lead for him in serialised television.
The pattern: Carlyle keeps returning to character-led television with literary or journalistic weight, while the blockbuster franchise era is firmly behind him.
Where does Robert Carlyle live now?
The short answer: both places. The longer answer is a two-decade balancing act between Vancouver and Glasgow, with his own interviews providing the clearest evidence.
His residence in Canada
- In the September 2025 interview with BBC News, Carlyle said he has spent the majority of the past 15 years living in Canada.
- The Big Issue (UK social-enterprise magazine) interviewed him from his Vancouver home in 2023.
- Sky News reported in 2020 that he had been living in Vancouver for the previous ten years.
- The Press and Journal described him in 2021 as having made his home in Canada.
- The Irish Examiner reported in 2020 that he, his wife and their three daughters had moved to Vancouver twelve years earlier.
Reasons for moving from Scotland
- Carlyle says the Canadian move followed his casting in Once Upon a Time, the fantasy series that filmed in Vancouver and ended in 2018 (BBC News).
- He has kept the family home in Glasgow and described it as significant to him (BBC News).
- In 2020, he told Sky News he expected to return to Scotland once his children finished their education.
- By 2023, the Daily Record (Scottish daily) reported he was still going back and forth to Canada for work, with Glasgow remaining his home.
The Canada residence is a working arrangement as much as a lifestyle choice: it began with a television contract and lasted because his family put down roots. The Glasgow anchor has never been cut.
Why this matters: this is not a celebrity relocation story. It is a two-country life, and every interview he gives about it lands on the same tension: work keeps him in Canada, but identity keeps him Scottish.
What is Robert Carlyle’s ethnicity?
Carlyle is Scottish, and every public account of his life starts in the same place: a Glasgow childhood in the Maryhill area. Questions about ethnicity in the strict sense are simpler than internet threads suggest.
Scottish heritage
- He was born and raised in Maryhill, Glasgow (BBC News).
- His ethnicity is recorded as white Scottish in the profiles reviewed; none of the sources reviewed suggest any other heritage.
- His accent and characters are strongly associated with working-class Glasgow, a link he has carried through his career.
Family background
- He has described his upbringing as working-class, rooted in one of the city’s working-class areas.
- The sources reviewed do not document his parents’ names, occupations or extended family in detail.
- What is clear from his own interviews is that Glasgow formed his identity long before Hollywood or Vancouver did.
What this means: his Scottishness is not a branding choice. The background he came from is the raw material of his best-known work, from Begbie’s violence to the solidarity of The Full Monty.
Are Robert Carlyle and David Tennant friends?
The question keeps appearing in search results, and the honest answer has two layers: a confirmed professional connection and an unconfirmed personal one.
Professional collaborations
- They lead the same series: BBC News confirms David Tennant plays journalist Nick Davies in The Hack, while Carlyle plays Dave Cook.
- Both are Scottish actors of the same generation, which makes their shared project a natural point of comparison for fans.
Personal relationship
- Neither actor has publicly described the other as a close friend in the sources reviewed.
- Social-media chatter treats them as close, but that appears to be inference from shared projects and nationality, not a documented friendship.
If the friendship angle is what brought you here, The Hack is the verifiable payoff: the two Scots share a drama about press power, and their on-screen chemistry is the part worth judging.
The catch: friendship claims built on casting lists and fan speculation remain exactly that unless one of them says otherwise.
Is The Hack worth watching?
This is the decision question, and the sources support a clear answer: it depends on what you want from a true-story drama. If you want a tight, well-acted retelling of a historic press scandal, the BBC’s own description makes a strong case. If you want documentary neutrality, look elsewhere.
Plot and true story basis
- BBC News describes The Hack as a seven-episode drama that intertwines two true stories.
- It follows the events that led to the closure of the News of the World and the reform of journalistic practice that followed (BBC News).
- That makes it a dramatized retelling, not a documentary: real people and real events, shaped for television narrative.
Filming locations
- Reported production locations include London and Surrey.
- The full location list has not been formally confirmed in the sources reviewed.
Episode count
Episodes: 7 · Format: Limited drama · Basis: Two true stories
Seven episodes is a compact run; the BBC’s own description treats it as a contained story, not an open-ended series.
Cast and performances
- David Tennant plays investigative journalist Nick Davies; Robert Carlyle plays Dave Cook, a former Metropolitan Police detective (BBC News).
- The verified cast list beyond the two leads is thinner; who plays figures such as Max Clifford has not been confirmed in the sources reviewed.
The Hack is a dramatization, not a documentary: the BBC’s framing of “two true stories” is a promise about subject matter, not about verbatim dialogue.
The verdict: The Hack succeeds when it lets Tennant and Carlyle play the pressure of a breaking news scandal; its limits sit exactly where drama and history blur.
That is the verdict for this series.
Upsides
- Two strong Scottish leads in Tennant and Carlyle, both working at the top of their range.
- A tight seven-episode structure with a historical story that has real stakes (BBC News).
- The subject — how a tabloid collapsed — remains relevant to anyone who follows the press.
Downsides
- It is drama, not journalism: scenes and structure are shaped for television.
- The supporting-cast details are not fully confirmed in the sources reviewed.
- If you want a straight factual account of the phone-hacking scandal, a documentary will serve you better.
Robert Carlyle: key dates
Seven dates, one pattern: a Glasgow start, two breakthrough films, a Canadian move that lasted, and a return to British television in 2025.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| Born in Maryhill, Glasgow. | |
| Plays Begbie in Trainspotting (Sky News). | |
| Stars in The Full Monty (Big Issue). | |
| The family relocates to Vancouver; reports date the move variously to around 2008 (Irish Examiner) or the start of the 2010s (Sky News). | |
| The Daily Record reports Glasgow is still his home, and the BBC quotes him saying he will never leave it. | |
| The BBC publishes an interview covering his 15 years in Canada and his role in The Hack (BBC News). | |
| Watson, a six-episode series listed on his IMDb profile, is dated — with no confirmed broadcast date yet. |
The trade-off: the timeline shows a man who traded daily proximity to Scotland for a family life in Canada — and who has spent every interview since managing the distance.
Confirmed facts and open questions
The sources reviewed for this article are consistent on the big points and silent on several details fans ask about.
Confirmed facts
- Robert Carlyle was born 14 April 1961 in Maryhill, Glasgow (BBC News).
- He is a Scottish actor known for Trainspotting and The Full Monty (Big Issue).
- He has lived in Canada for most of the past 15 years (BBC News).
- He was appointed OBE in 2023.
- The Hack is a seven-episode drama based on two true stories (BBC News).
What’s unclear
- Whether he and David Tennant are close friends outside work.
- Supporting-cast details for The Hack, including who plays Max Clifford.
- Exact filming locations for The Hack.
- Whether the 2027 Watson listing will go into production as listed.
- The exact year of his family’s move to Vancouver (reports vary between 2008 and 2010).
The pattern: the confirmed list is long where public records and interviews exist; the unclear list is short but real, and it covers exactly the details that live on gossip pages rather than in reporting.
What Carlyle says himself
Two lines from a 2023 BBC interview capture the permanent tension in his life between Canada and Scotland.
“There’s no way I’ll ever leave it.”
Robert Carlyle, on Glasgow — BBC News
He has also said that his life is in Glasgow (BBC News).
The implication: whatever the address on his mail, the emotional anchor has not moved.
Robert Carlyle’s story is not a celebrity relocation story. It is the story of an actor who built a family life in Canada while keeping his identity welded to Glasgow, and who chose a 2025 drama about press corruption as his next visible move. For UK viewers deciding whether to invest seven episodes in The Hack, the choice is clear: watch it for Tennant and Carlyle’s performances, or skip it if reconstructed tabloid history is not your genre — but do not mistake the drama for the journalism it depicts.
hellomagazine.com, pressandjournal.co.uk, robert-carlyle.livejournal.com, bbc.com, robert-carlyle.livejournal.com, robert-carlyle.livejournal.com, robert-carlyle.livejournal.com
Frequently asked questions
Who is Robert Carlyle’s wife?
The sources reviewed here do not name her. The Irish Examiner reported in 2020 that Carlyle, his wife and their three daughters moved to Vancouver twelve years earlier.
How tall is Robert Carlyle?
Public height figures vary across databases, and none of the sources reviewed provide a verified measurement, so this article does not quote one.
What is Robert Carlyle’s net worth?
Net worth numbers circulate on entertainment sites, but the sources reviewed contain no audited basis for a figure, so this article does not quote one.
What role did Robert Carlyle play as John Lennon?
None of the sources reviewed credit him with playing John Lennon. The claim appears to be a recurring online error; his verified credits centre on drama such as Trainspotting, The Full Monty and The Hack.
Does Robert Carlyle have children?
Yes — three daughters. The Irish Examiner reported in 2020 that Carlyle, his wife and their three daughters moved to Vancouver together.
Is The Hack based on a true story?
Yes. BBC News describes the series as a seven-episode drama that intertwines two true stories, following events around the closure of the News of the World.
How many episodes does The Hack have?
Seven, according to BBC News.
Where was The Hack filmed?
Reported locations include London and Surrey, though the full production list has not been confirmed in the sources reviewed.
Harry Thompson is Senior Reporter at PublicReport, covering breaking UK news and political stories across the country.