Brian Cox accidentally channelled his Succession character when he swore on air during an interview with ITV’s Loose Women.

The 75-year-old Scottish actor plays foul-mouthed media magnate Logan Roy in the hit HBO drama, which follows the cut-throat machinations of the Roys as they vie for supremacy over the family’s media conglomerate.

Cox was discussing his own similarities to Logan Roy on the daytime chat show on Wednesday when he let slip a curse word.

Succession world premiere – BFI London Film Festival 2021
Brain Cox (Ian West/PA)

Asked whether the family patriarch was the closest character to his own personality, he said: “I wouldn’t say that. I have an empathy for Logan Roy. I think he’s a little misunderstood, actually.

“I mean he’s a self-made man, he probably started off on one side of the political spectrum and ended up on the other side of it through experience and through disappointment.

“The one thing we share in common is a disappointment with the human experiment. We do believe that, the current crisis we’re living (in), I can’t believe that we’re still in the same – excuse me – shit that we’ve been in time and time again.”

Loose Women panellist Jane Moore interrupted him to apologise for the swearing, saying: “This is daytime television, apologies. Mr Cox is going to go wash his mouth out.”

He replied: “At least I’m not saying the F word.”

Asked if he swears as much as his foul-mouthed character he admitted he did not previously but he does now.

Cox added that he also shares his character’s tendency to be absent, even with his own children at times.

He described it as a “defence mechanism” built up from his childhood as he felt there was “a lot of sense of being absent” due to lacking the presence of his mother and father growing up.

“So I had that thing of bowing myself out in order to survive so that I didn’t become overly attached to someone,” he added.

“When you get over-attached you get to a state where it can hurt. So I thought, ‘OK, I won’t do that’.

“But the problem is, it got into a habit. So sometimes with my own kids, I’m a little bit absent, or I have been a little bit absent. I try to be a bit more present now.”

Makers of the HBO drama announced in October that Succession had been renewed for a fourth series after the third season began streaming earlier in the month.