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Russell Tovey has spoken candidly about coming out as gay to his parents at age 18, revealing that his dad thought he could be "cured."

The Doctor Who and Years and Years actor, 39, told The Sunday Times that "when I was at school it didn’t feel as though being gay was all right or normal on any level. It wasn't an option." More happily, he also said that an actress in a TV show he appeared in as an 11-year-old "gave me the gift of feeling it was all right" when she realized he was "having an existential crisis" over a male cast mate.

"Me coming out [at 18] was particularly hard for [my] Mum because we’ve always been so close," Tovey continued. "You think you know your child, then one day he says he’s gay — that’s a big personality streak you’ve missed, and it’s scary. I don’t think either of my parents were homophobic, they just didn’t know any gay people or anyone with gay kids. They had nothing to cling to. My dad thought it could be cured. He was scared about what my life would be like."

"To him, being gay was a road of pitfalls and unhappiness," Tovey added. "Out of love he wanted to correct this weakness, to put cotton wool around me and protect me from all that. People react in different ways, there’s no rhyme or reason, but if you love someone you have to respect the process."

In the same interview, the actor's mother Carole Tovey said that her husband George had "a hard time" getting to grips with their son's sexuality after he came out.

"I said to George: 'You’re the adult here, you’re his dad. Get your head round it because I’m not losing him.' He went and met Russ and they sorted it out."

Tovey has recently joined Sam Heughan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas in the cast of rom-com movie Text for You. He starred in The Sister, a four-part mystery thriller which premiered on ITV in October and Hulu in January.

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