While promoting his new movie, Irish ‘Sherlock’ actor Andrew Scott said he thinks it’s “pretty cool” that gay marriage has been legalised in the UK.

Scott, who came out last year , plays the villain Moriarty on BBC’s hit series, Sherlock, based on the Arthur Conan Doyle novels. His latest project is Pride, is a film telling the story of how gay activists teamed up with striking miners in Thatcher’s Britain of the 1980s.

Scott, who is in a long-term relationship said: “Sometimes I think people talk about different types of sexuality as if the were invented in 1973.

“It’s going on since the dawn of humanity, and will continue until the end of humanity, whenever that may be.”

Talking about playing gay in Pride, the 37 year-old from Churchtown in Dublin said: “People keep talking about the notion of ‘playing gay’. Which I always think is preposterous… when you’ve got ten leading characters who are gay, you’re not playing ‘the gay one’.”