Colin Morgan brings intensity and vulnerability to troubled young men. Humans gives us good reason to follow him; The Fall shows how little even a committed actor can do when a supporting role has been underwritten.
Fi1m perspective
In The Fall (2013), Colin Morgan’s Tom Anderson has a detective’s job, but his main use seems to be giving Gibson someone to look at. Morgan joins in the second series, as Allan Cubitt’s thriller slows down and becomes more absorbed in Spector’s psychology. We were frustrated by Tom’s thin role because it left little reason to care about him as a detective. The problem is the writing, rather than an actor failing to make enough noise.
Morgan’s breakthrough was the title role in Merlin (2008–2012), followed by the more grounded drama of The Fall and the science fiction of Humans (2015). His film work includes Victor Richardson in Testament of Youth (2015) and Billy Clanton in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast (2021). Those changes of setting suit an actor drawn to conflicted, vulnerable young men. His stage work shows in the care he gives to both movement and emotion.
Humans gives us more reason to follow him. As Leo Elster, Morgan has a central part in science fiction concerned with work, service and personhood, and his committed playing suits a programme that takes those questions seriously. The performances make its ideas worth staying with, even when the thriller plot follows familiar routes. This is a persuasive use of his seriousness: the people expected to serve others are the subject, and the acting helps keep them from becoming merely a discussion topic.
On this evidence, our reservation is about what he is given to play. The Fall has Gillian Anderson and an often frightening atmosphere, yet neither supplies Tom with the substance his role needs. We would rather see Morgan’s precision put to work in a fully considered character than used to lend seriousness to an underwritten one. Begin with Humans, allowing some patience for the thriller plotting.
Biography
Colin Morgan is a Northern Irish actor. He was born on 1 January 1986 in Armagh and trained at the Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, graduating in 2007.
He made his professional stage debut that year as the title character in Vernon God Little at the Young Vic. Morgan is best known for playing the title role in the BBC series Merlin (2008–2012). His other television credits include Doctor Who (2008), The Fall (2014–2016) as Tom Anderson, Humans (2015–2018) as Leo Elster, and The Living and the Dead (2016).
Film roles include Testament of Youth (2015), Legend (2015) and Belfast (2021). In 2008 he was named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow. For Merlin he received nominations including Best Actor in Drama Performance: Male at the 2013 National Television Awards.
