 On 15 May 1991 at Dublin 's Abbey Theatre , Behan played the lead character Connolly in the original production of Tom Murphy 's play The Patriot Game , which charted the events of the Easter Rising of 1916 . He also acted as a thug in the comedy film London Kills Me ( 1991 ) ; and made an appearance in the TV film Anglo @-@ Saxon Attitudes ( 1992 ) , based on the 1956 satirical novel by Angus Wilson . Other TV roles included characters in episodes of Highlander : The Series ( 1995 ) and The New Adventures of Robin Hood ( 1997 ) . He was subsequently handpicked by English novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford to be the male protagonist of the made @-@ for @-@ television film A Secret Affair ( 1999 ) , based on her 1996 book . In the film , which gained him a large and enthusiastic female following , he starred as Bill Fitzgerald , a war correspondent who falls in love with and pursues Vanessa Stewart ( Janine Turner ) in Venice although she is engaged , and who is subsequently kidnapped in a war zone . 
