Hey!  Got a new TV series in mind?  Looking for an actor to play the quintessentially American male lead?  No problem.  Hire an Englishman.  Several of the hottest series on TV have done the same.  Let’s continue this exploration with a very popular current series.

Sons of Anarchy.  The lead character, played by Newcastle-born Charlie Hunnam: Jackson “Jax” Teller, son of the late John Thomas “JT” Teller, founding member and former President of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, based in the ironically-named town of Charming, in northern California.

Jax is a rising star in the MC, having achieved the post of Vice-President at a relatively young age, under the leadership of another founding member, Clay Morrow, played by veteran actor Ron Perlman.  Jax’s mother Gemma, played by Katey Sagal, is the Club’s matriarch and Clay’s “old lady”.

Jax is in turmoil.  He’s been reading his father JT’s journals and has discovered how disturbed his father was about the dangerous direction he believed the Club was taking.  Even as JT struggled to change that direction, he seemed to know that he wouldn’t live to see his goals achieved.  This resonates with Jax and so he takes up his father’s burden, trying to do what JT couldn’t.  This leads to an inevitable power struggle with Clay and his allies, as Jax negotiates the world of corrupt local cops and city officials, federal agents, rival clubs, white supremacists, Irish gun runners, and Colombian drug cartels.  It’s one step forward and two steps back, as every move Jax tries to make towards safer waters only leads the Club deeper into a morass.  It is reminiscent of Michael Corleone in the Godfather: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”  Jax is presented as the hero of this story, but the audience is never allowed to forget that he is capable of extreme violence, and demonstrates that regularly.  He has earned that patch “Men of Mayhem”.

Charlie Hunnam gained fame as a character in the TV series Queer as Folk and followed that up with strong roles in several movies including the Oscar-winning Cold Mountain.  His latest Hollywood effort was in the sci-fi action/adventure Pacific Rim.  He had been tapped to play the role of Christian Grey in the adaptation of the best-selling book 50 Shades of Grey, but has since dropped out.