TV’s 7 stars of autumn
Newcomers tipped to light up small screen when evenings grow darker
THE sepia tones and scattered leaves, the actors in shades of red and orange... it can only mean one thing.
Autumn is just around the corner, and seven bright new stars of the season’s mustwatch dramas have been nominated by TV experts.
Here’s a glimpse at the breakout actors, handpicked by Radio Times, who will appear in the highly anticipated shows across terrestrial channels, as well as Netflix and Sky Atlantic. 1 SEX DRAMA IN SOHO Will Sharpe, 32, from north London, will play a colourful Soho sex worker in BBC2’s detective drama Giri/Haji. Sharpe lived in Tokyo until he was eight and was inspired by loud and stylised Japanese comedy. The multi-talented actor is writing and directing Louis Wain, a film starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy. He also wrote Channel 4’s black comedydrama Flowers. 2 GANG TENSIONS IN LONDON Michael Ward, 21, from east London, will star in Netflix’s Top Boy, the gang drama set in the capital. This is his first TV role, which he scored after sending a message to its star Ashley Walters asking for an audition. Ward caught the acting bug while performing at the Shakespeare Schools Festival, but has been influenced by his ‘noisy, creative, overdramatic’ family. 3 SECOND WORLD WAR TALE Blake Harrison, 34, from south London, will be familiar to fans of comedy series The Inbetweeners. But he will take a serious turn in BBC1’s upcoming Second World War drama World On Fire. He starred in A Very English Scandal alongside Hugh Grant and trained at Sylvia Young and the Brit School, but was working in a call centre when he won the Inbetweeners role. 4 IRISH PSYCHO THRILLER Sarah Greene, 35, from Cork, will star in BBC1’s The Dublin Murders, a dark, psychological thriller. A Tony and Olivier award nominee, Miss Greene is a seasoned stage actress but is relatively new to British TV. She dated Poldark star Aidan Turner for five years. 5 THE ‘LOST’ JANE AUSTEN Rose Williams, 25, from west London, has no formal acting training but will appear in ITV’s Sanditon. The young star will play Charlotte Heywood in Jane Austen’s unfinished novel. She started her TV career at 18 working in E4’s costume department, after which she turned her sights to acting. 6 GRITTY FAMILY CONFLICT Jade Croot, 20, from Merthyr Tydfil, will hit the screen in Channel 4’s The Light, playing a young woman who loses the use of her legs in a building site accident. A Welsh karate champion, Miss Croot will star alongside TV favourite Sarah Lancashire in the gritty family drama. 7 ENTERING THE UNDERWORLD Lily Newmark, 25, from south London, will star in Sky Atlantic’s Temple, a drama based in a fictional London underworld. The English-American actress landed her first TV role two years ago and said her unique features make her best suited for ‘quirkier roles’.