Actor Robert Carlyle was so deeply affected by the death of his father a year-and-a-half ago he pulled out of his next film. He has hardly been seen since and has even talked about quitting films altogether.

But now the 46-year-old Glasgow-born actor, whose hits include Trainspotting and The Full Monty, is throwing himself into a schedule that will see him making four feature films back-to-back and will take him from Bulgaria to Wales over the next few months.

Carlyle's father, Joseph, brought him up single-handed after his mother walked out on them at the age of four. Carlyle pulled out of the drama True North after his father's death in January last year and extended his break when his wife, Anastasia, had their third child a few months later. They called him Pearce Joseph.

He returned to work for the zombie sequel 28 Weeks Later last autumn, but spoke about wanting to quit altogether in five years so he can spend more time with his family.

He said: "I hate it. I am getting worse at it. It is difficult but you have to go where the work is. I am in a lucky position where I can do that, so why don't I?"

It now looks like the famously private star is determined to make as many films as quickly as possible before he quits. He has been filming Stone of Destiny, the story of the removal of the historic Scottish Coronation Stone from Westminister Abbey by Scottish students in 1950. He plays SNP founder John MacCormick, having declared his own personal switch from Labour to SNP just before the Holyrood elections.

He goes straight from Stone of Destiny to The Tournament, a thriller set in Bulgaria, in which he finds himself up against no fewer than 40 professional killers who are competing for a $10m prize in a bizarre reality TV show.

As soon as Carlyle gets back from Eastern Europe he will start work on Summer, a drama for Ken Loach's company Sixteen Films. It was Loach who gave Carlyle his first big movie break with Riff-Raff in 1990 when the realist director advertised for actors with experience in the building trade. Carlyle had been working as a painter, like his father. It will shoot mainly in England.

Then he is off to Wales to star in I Know You Know, a spy film with a difference. He plays an agent who faces some awkward questioning when his son discovers the nature of his job.

He inherited his passion for spy movies and thrillers from his father. And, in a curious tribute to the father to whom he was so close, his character in The Tournament is called Joseph.