And the style? Essentially minimalist, with complete economy of movement, language and facial expression. Qualifications for carrying it off? Exceptional physical grace and the ability to speak volumes through the eyes. Roy rationalises this interpretation by describing it as Michael’s mechanism for surviving in Section. One suspects, though, that after four years of playing ‘ordinary bloke’ Michel Gagné in Scoop, and with the prospect of another four or five years in one role, Roy needed to set himself a mighty artistic challenge. Paradoxically, the extreme stylisation results in a most believable character, thanks to the consistency with which it is applied. People who know only Michael never fail to be surprised when they encounter Roy’s more typically effusive Quebecois characters for the first time, and after countless viewings, as we learn to read Michael’s style, we wonder why it seemed so strange in the first place.