PLAY ON THE
ADRIAN LUKIS IS LOVING REVISITING PRIDE AND PREJUDICE’S CADDISH MR WICKHAM IN HIS OLD AGE, HE TELLS HUGH MONTGOMERY
FEW television series have made quite as much impact as Andrew Davies’ seminal 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice, a launchpad for a host of stars, including Colin Firth as the romantic hero Mr Darcy and Adrian Lukis as his friend Mr Wickham.
But, as Adrian now recalls, when it was commissioned, it wasn’t seen as a sure-fire hit. ‘I don’t think the BBC was particularly interested in making classic dramas at that time. A lot of drama was rooted in contemporary society, so [the producer] had to fight quite hard.’
Now, 26 years on, Adrian is returning to the role that made his name in an intriguing new one-man show, Being Mr Wickham, which he has co-written with historian Catherine Curzon. Adrian is performing it via live-stream for three performances only this month, before taking it on a UK tour later this year. It sees him playing Wickham in his later years, musing on his life, an idea which crystallised when Adrian turned 60.
‘Your knees start to creak and things like that, and I thought, “I wonder what ageing would be like for somebody whose stock in trade is their charm?”’
The production finds Wickham robustly defending his character in the face of Austen’s portrayal of him as an archetypal rogue. ‘Essentially, at the end, he says, “I’ve lived a good life, and I’ve survived”. And that’s the challenge: how do we all survive the skirmishes of the heart, the ups and downs of our lives?’
Adrian is more than happy that Pride And Prejudice keeps being repeated through the generations, and parents are introducing it to their children, so funnily enough, people still come up to me and say, “oh my god, it’s Mr Wickham!”’
He says the shoot was a lot of fun off-screen as well as on. ‘I remember getting pie-eyed with
Colin one night and we ended up in the jacuzzi in his room,’ he laughs.
‘The director walked in at one point and went “Oh my god, what is going on?” as we were sitting there with bottles of wine.’
Adrian knew he wanted to be a actor from a young age, but was briefly diverted by starting a rock band – until that is, at 18, he was warned off signing a touring contract by none other than Peter Gabriel, a regular at the restaurant in Bath he was working at. ‘He came in one day when I was doing a shift and sat down and said “You know, I’ve had a look at this and I don’t think it’s any good”, so that was that – we all went our own ways off to university.’ Following his Austen calling card, Adrian landed a starring role in hit primetime series Peak Practice, and since then has been a stalwart of British TV. One fruitful avenue he’s found in recent years has been in comedy. ‘I think people saw this tall, reasonably nice looking boy in his 20s and went, “Oh gosh, you can play the young man in this drama,” and actually when I was at university and drama school, I did comedy all the time,’ he explains. He’ll soon be seen in the second series of Channel 4 comedy-drama Feel Good, playing the heroine Mae’s father alongside Lisa Kudrow, as the mother. ‘She’s smart, and she’s funny, and a bit quirky, which is great,’ he says. In the summer, he is due to start filming a new series of the gloriously silly sitcom Toast, in which he plays the militaryman brother of the titular lead. During lockdown, he reveals, the cast’s WhatsApp group has been a great source of entertainment.
‘We send each other little funny snippets and thoughts in voice memos. I’ve had fun inventing various characters, which I might try and turn into a comedy thing at some point, including a pompous old actor called Sir Everett Granger, who is a terrible old bore.’
Indeed, putting together Being Mr Wickham has opened him up to the possibility of doing more writing, including another take on
Wickham’s later years, in novel form.
And he’s also looking forward to some simple postlockdown pleasures.
‘Like everybody, I want to sit down with a group of friends, possibly down by the river
[Thames, where I live] and order a few cases of rosé and fish and chips and spend an evening laughing.’
n Being Mr Wickham is streamed from Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds April 30-May 1, theatreroyal. org