Johnny Depp brought an air of sophistication to London's Leicester Square tonight for the premiere of his new film, Mortdecai.

Depp, 51, plays suave art dealer Charlie Mortdecai who is racing to recover a stolen painting in the film based on Kyril Bonfiglioli's novel.

But the actor admitted that his character's trademark moustache had caused him some problems.

He said: "I admired the work in the moustache - each hair was put in one hair at a time. It was amazing.

"The moustache was great until this - Paul Bettany (who plays Mortdecai's servant Jock Strapp) made me laugh really hard and my moustache pinged off and it shot like four feet across the room. It was so funny."

He continued of his character: "Charlie Mortdecai was almost a fully realised character in the books.

"I find when you're playing a character like Charlie Mortdecai you can essentially get away with everything. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun to be able to give it everything and make people laugh."

The film was shot in London and Depp added that he loved spending time in the UK.

He said: "I don't know, for some reason I breathe easier here. Everything about it, I suppose the culture, the people, the history - even the weather - I love it here."

Bettany joined Depp on the red carpet and said: "I haven't had a chance to do a lot of comedy in my career and I was just lucky that Johnny had seen it in me.

"We've made three films together now and we've laughed our way through every one of them, but this time we were allowed to do it on screen which was really nice."

Also at the premiere were Depp's fiancee Amber Heard and the film's director David Kopp.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor and Olivia Munn, who also appear in the film, did not attend the premiere.

Mortdecai will be released in cinemas on January 21.