Toby leads a double life in new drama series
What’s the key to creating a great drama? Obviously the plot is crucial, but getting the casting spot on is also important. Every few years, an actor comes along who seems to land a series of exciting roles; he (or she) becomes the go-to person for a generation. At the moment, Toby Jones is filling that role. He’s not your archetypal film or TV star, but that is perhaps his strength – he can play an everyman, even if that everyman has quirks, personality defects or other offbeat characteristics. As a result, he’s a man in demand. During the past 10 years or so, he’s been a Doctor Who villain, Dobby the house elf in the Harry Potter movies, an extraordinarily coiffed commentator in The Hunger Games, played Alfred Hitchcock and Truman Capote as well as Captain Mainwaring, and a disturbed cinematographer in The Berbarian Sound Studio. Jones has recently been cast as another bad guy in the next series of Sherlock, while arguably his best two roles have come for the BBC – as Lance in Mackenzie Crook’s Detectorists and Stoke City supporter extraordinaire Neil Baldwin in Marvellous. Is he about to add a third to that list? The stars do seem to be aligning – Jones takes the lead role of Verloc in the Beeb’s new, three-part version of Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent (Sunday, BBC1, 9pm) this week. He will appear alongside Vicky McClure, who portrays his character’s wife, Winnie. McClure is simply thrilled to finally be paired with a man she’s been admiring from afar for some time: “I’m so excited to play the part of Winnie,” she reveals.“It’s an incredible script. And delighted to be working with Toby Jones – I’ve always been a huge fan of his.” Taking a period role is something of a departure for McClure, who is best known for her participation in more modern-day projects such as Broadchurch, Line of Duty and, of course, This is England. The latter also featured Stephen Graham, who also pops up here, alongside Ian Hart, Tom Goodman-Hill and David Dawson. Set in London in 1886, it follows shopkeeper Verloc’s fortunes as he earns extra cash by spying on a dangerous anarchist cell by the Russians. When his paymasters order him to orchestrate a bombing that can be blamed on the cell’s members, he must source an explosive from the so-called Professor, but without raising the suspicious of his wife and the local police chief.