The one-off 90-minute film, which co-stars ex-The Royal actress Anna Madeley as Erica, is a glossy pilot for a possible series aiming to follow in the footsteps of escapist shows like Department S and The Persuaders.
"I didn't have a master plan when I left EastEnders," confesses Nigel. "When you leave a show like that, you worry if you're going to work again. I went off and did some theatre.
"I had a hunch that an action drama would come up, something which would involve me running around, but it wasn't something I craved to do. I liked the fact that I hadn't really seen something like this on telly for a very long time.
"Nathan is rough and ready. He grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and spent his youth breaking into buildings and picking locks, so was recruited into Minus 12 that way."
Although the thriller takes in locations like London, Malta, Paris and Rome, it was filmed entirely in Liverpool with an original soundtrack by Andy Connell and Corinne Drewery of Swing Out Sister fame.
It includes a daring leap from a skyscraper and a plunge from a helicopter into the sea. Nigel recalls: "I did most of the stunts but the insurance men would not let me hang from the helicopter, which I was disappointed about.
"Every night I'd go home, have a bath and count a new bruise. My nights were spent soaking the aches and pains away, but thinking, `I can't believe they are paying me to do this'."
Female fans don't have to wait long before Nigel goes topless. But he wants to be taken seriously as an actor. "It's very flattering that people talk about me when I have my top off but it's not something I pursue. I haven't been to the gym in four months.
"Being in something four times a week, people just tend to familiarise you with that role. It'll take a long time for me to shed those skins. But at the moment it's all going very well. It's not all about high profile work for me. I'll quite happily go and hide in a theatre somewhere. It's much more about the work than it is about being famous, which doesn't mean that much to me."
Nigel's first TV appearance was in a stock cube advert at the age of eight and he went on to feature in Red Cap and Doctors. But he also has a long track record in theatre, including musicals Mamma Mia and Guys and Dolls.
Currently in rehearsals for Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, which opens at The Crucible in Sheffield on October 11, he says: "I was brought up in the theatre and it's where the real acting work is. Of course, I'm going to be skint. But it doesn't matter. What's really interesting for me is just to be dealing with a classic piece of literature where every word and comma and pause is sacred. For me, that is the real challenge and the real skill.
"You're going to go a long way to come across a writer like Pinter on telly and, hopefully, one day I will. But at the moment it's about improving and getting better and challenging myself.
"I want to do lots of different things and stuff that stretches me as an actor, rather than having to get down the gym. I'm inherently lazy, so I'd like to do a job where I can have a beer gut."
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