Colin gets serious

Colin gets serious

We may have last seen him running around with a tarted-up Rupert Everett in St Trinian's, but Colin Firth is getting serious for his latest project - a documentary about American prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been on death row for 25 years for murder.

Colin executively produces In Prison My Whole Life, which sees 25-year-old William Francome go on a journey to understand the case. Colin's wife Livia also acts as producer.

"I was attracted to the unlikely journey of a white English boy going on a journey to meet a black American man of a completely different generation who's been incarcerated all his life," says Colin, who was in Park City, Utah with his wife to premiere the film at the Sundance Film Festival. "I wanted to try and see where that journey led."

And Colin and his wife both have strong feelings on the death penalty.

"Without any hesitation or question, there's no argument for it at all," he says. "I've heard it argued for vigorously but I don't think any of those arguments touch the sides. It's an utter obscenity in every conceivable case. It's nothing to do with how heinous the crime is. It's wrong for the state to kill - to be given a licence to do that is just wrong. It's wrong for us to be a part of that and to use that as an instrument of justice."