Trainspotting writer Irvine Welsh teases potential sequel series - and whether iconic roles could be recast

Yet, there’s a cocky young upstart who thinks he could do a job there if Trainspotting’s sequel, Men in Love – published on 22 July – gets the adaptation treatment. “I could probably play them all quite well,” reckons Irvine Welsh, the 66-year-old author of both novels.

“I think I could do a decent hard man for Begbie; the cynical outsider, like Renton; I can probably have a go at the lover, Sick Boy; and I can definitely do the hapless fool, lovable loser thing for Spud. It’s because every character you write is a part of you, even the nutters. All you can really hope for is that the nutters are repressed parts of you.”

In fact, Welsh played small parts in both Trainspotting films, and when asked about a possible big ten-hour, Netflix-style series based on Men in Love, he says he’s “been working with Bobby Carlyle on something like that, but I’d love to just get some brilliant young actors and recast the whole lot again, starting from [prequel] Skagboys”.

So could he pip McGregor to the lead role? “The casting people might have something to say about that. And the Hollywood financiers wouldn’t be too enthused either.”

Still, stranger things have happened. Welsh expects his West End musical version of Trainspotting to open next year and he’s also collaborated on a “disco soul album” released as a companion to Men in Love this week.

There are surprises in store for his characters, too. Although it picks up just after Trainspotting finishes, the story’s “heroes” are changed – or at least changing – men. Renton is, says Welsh, “looking for love”; Spud has “found the girl of his dreams” and Sick Boy is even considering marriage.

Watch the original trailer for Trainspotting below:

“The book is about men who have to make big decisions around love and romance. Because we all get to our mid-20s and society compels us to make these decisions about relationships that we’re ill-equipped to make. You’ve basically been hanging out with your mates for ten years, and with your mum and dad before that, but then you’re suddenly thrust into this world and faced with these choices. And I’ve picked these poor guys from Trainspotting, who are probably the most ill-equipped guys you can imagine.”

But why has Welsh written a sequel now, three full decades after the original novel? “It’s true,” sighs the author. “Sensible people who want to make money would have built a brand and published the novels sequentially rather than bringing the guys back together when I find a theme I want to write about.

“But I think there’s so much hatred and nastiness in the world now, and I’m realising that my duty as a writer, in some ways, is to explore and offer up love. I’m finding myself more into trying to understand how people connect rather than the forces that pull them apart.”

Does that shift in approach reflect a greater emphasis on love in Welsh’s own life? “Definitely. You get to that stage where you’ve been through a few big relationships, and when you split up you always think, ‘It’s because she was like this or like that.’ But then you realise there are a lot of bodies strewn in your past, so maybe the common denominator is you.

“You have to develop some self-awareness, and I’ve been doing that a lot over the last decade. Because you also get to a point where you think: ‘I don’t want to mess this up again. It’s too costly – emotionally and financially – falling in love and breaking up.’ I like lawyers, but I don’t like paying them all the time.”

It’s not entirely clear how much he likes publishers right now either. The book comes with an “Author’s Note” explaining that “As a novel set in the 1980s, many of the characters… express themselves in ways we now consider offensive and discriminatory…”.

And when the subject of this apologia comes up, Welsh is quick to insist: “It’s not my idea. It’s the publishers. Their argument is that the internet is so powerful that it’s easy for people to take a line out of the book out of context. I was very opposed to that, because it’s fiction, it’s a novel set in the 80s, and that’s all the context you need. I thought [the note] was totally unnecessary – but we live in such charged times, and doing it seemed to make everybody happy.”

There’s something else to make publishers happy, too. “When I wrote Trainspotting, Skagboys, Porno, Dead Men’s Trousers and The Blade Artist [all of which feature the same characters to a greater or lesser degree], I felt ‘that’s enough, I’m done with them’. But I’ve come off writing this book on a high, and I feel there’s much more to say about those characters through the 90s. You know, I think I will write about them again…”

The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here.

Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.