He wasn't bored, he wasn't dreaming of film stardom - but Bafta nominee Michael Fassbender did do a spectacularly convincing portrayal of a man under anaesthetic in Holby City.

"I fell asleep on the operating table," he tells Radio Times. "The trouble was they were filming the scene over and over again and focusing on all the doctors operating on me and I was lying there with my eyes closed and I just drifted off. I woke to hear someone whispering, 'He's fallen asleep'."

Holby City came after brief roles in Band of Brothers and the BBC's Hearts and Bones but it was film that was to make his name. He starred in Steve McQueen's 2008 film Hunger, about IRA hunger strikers, and from there he was off: playing Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre and appearing in everything from Inglourious Basterds to X-Men: First Class.

But it was reuniting with Steve McQueen for Shame that brought him a Bafta nomination for best actor. Speaking in Radio Times, he addresses the many and explicit sex scenes in the film: "If it had been a different director, I would have been a lot more wary because some of the scenes are pretty graphic, but I totally trusted Steve."

While he waits to see whether Shame will triumph at the Baftas, Fassbender's already won at the Evening Standard Awards this week. He took best actor for both Shame and Jane Eyre, while Olivia Colman won Best Actress for Tyrannosaur.

Read more about what really daunted Fassbender about his Shame role in the new issue of Radio Times magazine, on sale now.