Falling for Jamie Dornan

Dornan sprang to fame as the star of the gritty Belfast-set drama The Fall and is chillingly good as a seemingly mild-mannered family man and grief counsellor, Paul Spector, leading a secret life as a serial killer. Pitting his wits against police officer Gillian Anderson (The X Files) in a tense game of cat and mouse, Dornan gives viewers an insight into a disturbed mind that is as uncomfortable as it is compulsively watchable.

Fact 2: 50 Shades of Grey made him a star

It was the role everyone was talking about – the mysterious and very STRICT billionaire Christian Grey. And it turned Dornan into a household name. Over three hugely successful movies, the unassuming Northern Ireland actor brought his trademark intensity to the part before finally hanging up his whip and moving on.

All he has to do is add another "L" to his address now that he’s made the big time! The one with one consonant less, though, is in County Down, Northern Ireland, and is a suburb of Belfast. The place has a pretty good pedigree when it comes to producing top talent – and not just in the movies! World No. 1 golfer, Rory McIlroy, also calls this place home! Jamie is a pretty good golfer himself, and has been spotted teeing off at the gorgeous Rosapenna course in County Donegal.

It’s official, the soft-voiced Belfast man is just one of the reasons why OnePoll.com put the Irish accent at the top of their sexiest accent list, based on the survey of 5,000 people from across the globe. In the past, Jamie has spun out a Russian accent, and, of course, his American accent for Grey is flawless. But his real accent? Well, that’s pure Northern Ireland.

Dornan is an enormous Manchester United fan. He revealed all in a tweet chat: “Many people ask why I support Manchester United. I’m from Belfast. So was the incomparable George Best. Simple as that.” If you’ve never heard of George, he was one of the greatest soccer players of all time. So good, in fact, that they named an airport after him… George Best Belfast City Airport.

Hailing from a beautifully scenic place like County Down, Jamie’s childhood ambitions were slightly less high-profile than being an A Lister. When asked on Twitter what he wanted to be as a child, he said “A park ranger. I love green space.” To us, that’s not so surprising: around the corner from where he grew up was the inspiration for CS Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles in the form of the Mourne Mountains… Looking at views like this, it’s no wonder he felt a calling to tend the land…

When a Q&A with Jamie took place, naturally some of the questions asked were about Northern Ireland and his favourite things from home. His response? Well, “The people and the Guinness”.