PASADENA, Calif. – Writer Jimmy McGovern is angry. You know he’s angry because he tells you so. But you don’t have to take his word. All you have to do is look at his lead character on BBC America’s “Cracker: a New Terror” (a TV movie premiering Oct. 30) to intuit the fury beneath the surface.

McGovern’s Edward Fitzgerald, the overweight, flawed psychologist who serves as police adviser in “Cracker,” starred in four TV series on BBC America and was even made into a whitewashed, short-lived American version.

McGovern conjured up the womanizing, alcoholic, chain-smoking cynic after serving as writer for a successful British soap called “Brookside.”

When he invented Fitz, he refused to compromise on his character. “Cracker was born because I packed in working at “Brookside’ and my main ambition was to write a thing about a Catholic priest,” says McGovern in his slightly Irish brogue.

“I wanted it to be a six-part drama series. But it was hard for me because I was only a soap-opera writer and it’s hard to get a break in mainstream television. But a producer called me, Gub Neal, and he approached me with this idea called “Cracker.’ And I turned it down thinking it’s a bit formulaic, bit high-concept. Anyway I just wanted to do a priest. I just had a burning ambition to write about a Catholic priest, it was part of my upbringing and all.”

McGovern is what he calls a “lapsed” Catholic. That’s probably putting it mildly.

As a gifted working class kid he was taken out of his elementary school and put into a “superior” school taught by the Jesuits. “I was not necessarily gifted, but you’re able to pass examinations,” he shrugs.

“I think that made me the man I am because the Jesuit priests I encountered were right-wing, reactionary b——- who couldn’t understand poverty, had no sense of justice – whereas at the same time, Jesuit priests were working in this country and South America and doing great work. But in our country every Jesuit priest seemed to be a right wing, reactionary b——- … Although they taught me a lot of language, they taught me Latin and Greek. Nobody knows better than I how a sentence is constructed, and I fell in love with Gerard Manly Hopkins, who was a great Jesuit poet. So it gave me a respect for language, but it made me angry,” he says.

McGovern survived the tutelage and left school at 16. “I only went back to education when I was 28 and was training to be a school teacher. You could do that in our country because you could get student grants. When I became a schoolteacher I started to write, saw bits of theater. I’d been a member of a writers’ workshop, the usual thing. So I started to write properly when I was in my 30s.”

In 1982 McGovern was hired to write “Brookside,” but when he left six years later and tried to sell his “priest” idea, he was rejected. “The BBC turned me down for “Priest’ so, in the meantime, my father died and that had an effect on me. So I went back to Gub and thankfully he still had the offer on the table.

“I went back in just the right frame-of-mind “cause I was angry with the way I was treated by the BBC. And I was angry with all the history of the 1980s in our country. And I was angry because the white working-class man in our country was perceived as a right-wing fascist, racist, homophobic. I certainly wasn’t any of those things. So I went into “Cracker’ with, “Flip you all, you politically correct b——. I’m gong to write what I want to write now. That’s how I got “Cracker.”‘

McGovern eventually got his “Priest” made into a film, which was highly lauded on both sides of the pond. But it is for Fitz that he’s best known. The character is played by the portly, breathless Robbie Coltrane, the exact opposite of how McGovern first envisioned him.

“If I’d had my way I wanted a very thin, wiry actor. I said to Gub, “Get the nearest thing you can to John Cassavetes.’ Because I loved John and thought he was an underrated actor, and I thought he was a great filmmaker and his life was the life of a Fitz … Gub said, “Robbie Coltrane.’ And Gub was right because Robbie came with a legacy of great affection, and he was popular with all the young, intelligent, sophisticated people in our country.

“When I saw the first few takes I knew I was wrong. And the funny thing is, since that day, I’ve never had any say in casting. I don’t want it.”

McGovern, who’s been married “30-odd years,” is the father of three children. He admits he has a lot in common with Fitz. “When I’m at my best I share things with him, respect for truth and justice. It’s a Catholic thing, truth and justice. But when I’m at my worst – which is very frequent – I’m ashamed to say I get drunk, I smoke, I gamble, all those things.”

The 56-year-old started writing because he had a stammer. He still does. “It was great to write because I couldn’t speak … The vast majority of kids when they’re confronted by a blank page, they crumble. Me, I spread my wings when I saw a blank page because I could communicate.”

And how does he feel about it now? “I used to like writing a lot more when I knew a lot less,” he sighs.

Two episodes of McGovern’s “The Street” also are airing on BBC America on Oct. 31 and Nov. 7.

Greg Grunberg plays the unlucky beat cop on NBC’s “Heroes,” who begins to realize that he can hear what other people are thinking. Surprisingly, Grunberg was NOT in the show’s pilot. They shot a two-hour pilot and had to whittle it down to one hour, so Grunberg was out. But he’s not sorry.

“For superstitious reasons, I’m extremely excited that I’m not in the pilot,” he says. “I wasn’t in the pilot of “Felicity.’ I wasn’t in the pilot of “Alias.’ I was in the pilot of “Lost,’ and then I got eaten. So I’m excited that I got established in the second episode. It’s a good thing.”