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Krod Mandoon is in his thirties and ruggedly handsome, but in all other respects he is the unlikeliest of heroes, a self-proclaimed idiot for whom glory waits. Bound by common cause, are he and his comrades really the answer to his oppressed people's prayers?

Sean explains: "Krod is a freedom fighter who is a good warrior and a good hero, but he's got a few issues. Generally he's a guy who's trying to get something done with a band of men who aren't quite up to scratch. He's struggling to get the mission accomplished in an accidental Inspector Clouseau style."

British born and bred, and perhaps best known over here for his roles in the long-running serials Grange Hill and EastEnders, Sean now lives in Los Angeles and has really been making a name for himself in America in projects such as Meet The Spartans.

He was delighted when he was approached to star in Krod: "It was just the sort of exciting part I'd been looking for. I had a meeting with Peter and Brad (the creators and writers) and Peter described Krod: 'Imagine Conan The Barbarian if Larry David was Conan,' and I thought 'That's a pretty good summary – I couldn't do better than that!' As soon as I read the script, I fell in love with Krod and his band of men and five months later, there I was in Hessemeel drinking a few tankards of grog!"

Sean explains how the character of Krod evolved: "We had difficulty with the character at the beginning, creating this really gallant hero type who is nonetheless a little under equipped for the job. Originally he was a neurotic mess, a kind of Woody Allen, scared of a lot of things, but we realised we wanted to make him more like an Indiana Jones; a very real hero who can get the job done, but against very difficult odds. Krod is a very good man, but flawed in the way that most of us 21st-century men are. We don't know whether we are supposed to be the tough guy who will leap to your defence or fight for your honour; or should we not be afraid to cry at 101 Dalmations? I guess Krod is somewhere in the middle.

"So he became a typical 21st-century metrosexual man. He is effectively Indiana Jones-meets-suburban-dad with 2.4 kids. He's the post-feminist guy who wants to be a good boyfriend, a good leader, a good freedom fighter but he has a girlfriend who has some pretty loose morals, he's got a magician who's not very good at magic and a muscle-man who's a bit stupid, so his life's just fraught with problems. Essentially he's the modern man in an old fantasy world realm where survival was paramount and hair cream became a second priority.

Sean continues: "As the days went by, I found myself increasingly identifying with my character, living and breathing Krod Mandoon."

He elaborates: "When I first got together with the other actors, I said: 'If there are any problems or concerns, please do tell me and we'll fix them because we are a team and everything!' So they began to come to me with their problems and I said: 'Maybe you should take that to someone else 'cos I don't really know where you are going to find underwear in Budapest!' So yeah, there is a lot of me in Krod – a little bit too much, I think!"

As the series starts, Krod is in a committed, monogamous relationship with the gorgeous warrioress Aneka, played by India de Beaufort: "Krod is madly in love with Aneka – she's the love of his life, his pagan maiden. They're destined to be together, and it's written in the scripts – and the historical tapestry – but she's just such a slut! You know, to get her job done, she normally just takes off her clothes and obviously that is very unsettling for me, because she is my love, but she just keeps on doing it!"

So Krod is a pretty sensitive man: "He even keeps a very personal, heartfelt journal. In many ways, Aneka is the guy in the relationship whereas Krod's the one going: 'Really – let's just talk first and get to know each other a little bit!' If he were to be transported to the 21st century, I imagine that he would be an IT manager. He'd probably have a band of people on his floor who are tying to get things done and he'd be constantly saying: 'Let's workshop it... let's do trust exercises... let's get that fax machine working!' He's a modern leader, but he's definitely got all of the modern leader's faults too."

He adds that Krod's sword is rather like a modern day technological crutch: "It's his equivalent of a mobile phone. Krod has a tendency to lose his sword a lot. It's a bit like that panicky moment when someone starts searching all their pockets and bags: 'Oh my phone... somebody call my phone... I had it somewhere. The keys! What did I do with my keys?' Of course, the difference is that if I didn't have this flaming sword of fire, I could die at any minute, so the stakes are a little higher!"

In fact Sean did have a couple of close shaves whilst working with the flaming sword: "Because the sword was attached to a gas canister and really does catch fire in real life. I had one particularly exciting day when I was doing a scene where I had to point it at someone as if I was going to kill them, and the director kept saying: 'Lower, lower!' but the flames started travelling up towards me and they put this gooey lotion on my hand to protect it from the fire, but the flames started licking around my wrists until they yelled: 'Cut! You'd better cut!"

Sean did do some of his own stunts: "But I'm not one of these hero guys, because I've broken a lot of bones making films. I've got an amazing stunt double called Gushi who does the really heroic, daredevil stuff where you nearly die. But I was dragged behind a horse, had vicious sword fights, was almost set on fire, thrown through the air and smashed into a carriage and that was just in the first couple of weeks!"

But Sean thoroughly enjoyed making the series – and in particular, working with Matt Lucas who plays the evil chancellor Dongalor, his nemesis: "They both went to Hessemeel Military Academy and Krod was always a bit better than he was. Dongalor's not very happy about that, and obviously he's turned to the forces of evil whilst I'm fighting for the good of the good. Dongalor's just a nasty character. He kills people a lot and I don't agree with that, politically or otherwise, so we will always be at odds with each other. You know, he wants glory and greed and I just want peace!"

He adds: "We had very strong scripts to work with which means that Royal Shakespeare Company actors such as Roger Allam, who plays my mentor General Arcadius, came in to work with us on the strength of the writing. There was a lot of energy and laughter on set which was great. I loved the material and it was one of the best crew and casts I have ever worked with. Filming in Hungary was interesting too; it's a beautiful country and different from other European countries I've visited."

Sean concludes: "I hope that people enjoy the show. There is very little out there at the moment that is anything like Krod Mandoon And The Flaming Sword Of Fire and we loved every minute of making it."