Nathaniel Parker
Jeffrey Davies talks to Nathaniel Parker about avoiding the theatre, his best-known roles and being paid to do what you love
NATHANIEL Parker is one of this country’s favourite actors. His many television roles include Detective Inspector Lynley in seven seasons of the BBC hit, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Agravaine in Merlin, Harold Skimpole in Bleak House and Albert Speer in Nuremberg, as well as making guest appearances in other top dramas including Poirot.
And next week, Nathaniel will be at Bath Theatre Royal performing in Oscar Wilde’s comedy An Ideal Husband, part of the venue’s 2018 summer season of fine dramas.
As a busy and highly respected stage, TV and film actor, Nathaniel receives many scripts for his consideration. Some, of course, he accepts and some, conversely, he rejects.
So why did he decide take on a part in An Ideal Husband? What made the ‘Rolls Royce of English comedies’ so appealing for him to say yes?
“Well firstly, the Rolls Royce of English comedies is such a very good description of it,” an extremely engaging Nathaniel told me.
“It’s a brilliant, witty and timeless play with all that one would expect from Oscar Wilde, at the heart of which there is a proper dilemma dealing with very current problems and issues such as sexual politics and corruption. For me, it’s Wilde’s best play.
“I play Sir Robert Chiltern who is, in my eyes, lucky enough to be the dilemma at the heart of the piece,” Nathaniel went on. “It’s a very good, meaty role too. And the joy of having a go at it every night, and trying to do something slightly different, is the nature of live theatre of course. And it’s very exciting as well because you never quite know what’s going to happen.
“And by half time in this one, because it’s got such an unusual way to finish, most people go out slightly aghast, and then they come back and laugh all the way through the second half which is great.”
Most say they seek out likenesses between themselves and the character they are going to play. Is this the same for Nathaniel?
“Yes, there always are likenesses. Always something,” he replied.
“You are looking to unlock different parts of yourself all the time. Those can be frightening, funny, silly, serious and, in some cases, you don’t even know what they are because you’ve never gone there before.
“So, for me, the joy of picking up a script, particularly as good as this one, is that it will take you somewhere slightly different every night, which is exciting.”
I suggested that being an actor is one of the most wonderful jobs to have because you ‘become’ so many different and interesting people during a lifetime.
“It’s a mad lifestyle, it’s bonkers,” Nathaniel answered, without any hesitation.
“It’s really what I did aged three in the playground. Playing cowboys and Indi-
ans with imaginary people all around me. And now people pay me for it, doing something I love doing.”
Most actors I’ve talked to say that acting on stage is their preferred genre. Is the stage Nathaniel’s preference, too?
“I didn’t used to be. I started in that category and then I got rather sour. I had awful stage fright when I was about 30, and did about four plays in 20 years. So I kept away from it,” Nathaniel, 56, admitted readily. “But I did absolutely fall in love with being in front of TV and film cameras. I just adored it and loved the way you worked. “Theatre, television and film are a different craft but I have still enjoyed them all. They’re different but enormous fun to do. “But,” he conceded, “I’ve since found that theatre is an extraordinarily different craft and a lovely one to be part of. And I really cherish it now.”
Of course, no chat with a very friendly Nathaniel could end without mentioning his best-known TV alter ego: Detective Inspector Lynley in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. Running from 2001 to 2008, the prime time detective drama is still being aired.
“Oh I absolutely loved it and I miss it enormously,” Nathaniel said, recalling with obvious fondness the show that catapulted him to TV stardom.
“It was such great fun to do. It really it was, I miss it. And I really miss working with Sharon Small [his co-star] as well. Oh, I would love to be doing them again..”
Nathaniel’s film CV includes playing Wilfred Owen in War Requiem (which also starred Sir Laurence Olivier), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and the role of Dunstan Thorn in the 2007 film Stardust.
While on stage he has recently performed in the West End and on Broadway in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s productions of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, as well as in the West End productions of This House, The Audience and Speed-the-plow. He has also performed with the RSC, including in Peter Hall’s 1989 production of The Merchant of Venice with Dustin Hoffman in London and on Broadway.
He last played the Theatre Royal Bath in Quartermaine’s Terms in 2008.
AN IDEAL HUSBAND IS AT THE THEATRE ROYAL FROM JULY 18. TICKETS CAN BE BOOKED AT THE BOX OFFICE ON 01225 448844 OR WWW.THEATREROYAL.ORG.UK