Timothy Spall says he felt 'hobbled' as an actor before his huge weight loss

Timothy Spall has said that he felt 'hobbled' as an overweight actor, before embarking on his dramatic weight loss.

The veteran British actor began losing weight in 2014, cutting down his intake of food and alcohol, and shedding stones in the process.

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62-year-old Spall, best known for his role as Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter movies as well as award-winning turns in movies like Mr Turner and The King's Speech, added that now feels 'liberated'.

Speaking to the Radio Times, he said: “I wanted to change my lifestyle and lose weight. And it’s done what I’d always hoped it might.

“As a character actor, it’s put me in a position where I’m not hobbled by being a certain shape. I’m no longer that avuncular round bloke. It does feel liberating on many levels.”

Spall broached his weight loss earlier this year, telling Lorraine Kelly: “If I was going to write a diet book, it would be two pages.

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“The first one is, food and booze is lovely and exercise is horrible.

“Right, turn over the page. If you eat too much and drink too much, you put on weight. If you eat about the right amount, you don't. And that's it really.”

Spall will next be seen playing the painter L.S. Lowry in the biopic movie Mrs Lowry & Son, alongside Vanessa Redgrave, who play's Lowry's bedbound but overbearing mother Elizabeth.

The movie, directed by Adrian Noble, is released on August 30.