British actor Rafe Spall heaped "a lot of pressure" on himself to succeed in the early days of his career to prove his talent independently of his famous father.

The One Day star is the son of Harry Potter actor Timothy Spall and he reveals he was spurred on to succeed by a fear of critics accusing him of trading off the family name.

He says, "I certainly put a lot of pressure on myself to show that I wasn't just being employed because of who my dad was. Plus, like anybody, you want the approval of your parents."

However, the actor admits his dad is fiercely proud of him, adding, "You know when you're young and you do a really s**t drawing of a car and your mum says it's the best drawing she's ever seen? It's like that with him. Although I can tell when he really likes something."