Dermot Crowley’s dry, unhurried Schenk is a welcome presence in Luther. We value the steadiness he brings to a frequently preposterous series, though its writing gives a dependable supporting actor too little to do.
Fi1m perspective
Martin Schenk takes his time in Luther (2010), a programme in which reasonable behaviour can seem in short supply. Crowley’s dry delivery suggests a man who expects procedure to be followed. We felt relieved by his calm, because Neil Cross’s crime series so often asks us to accept preposterous plotting. Schenk makes the police station seem briefly capable of doing its job. That steadiness is what we value in Crowley: he makes ordinary professional competence worth watching.
His early film work includes General Crix Madine in Return of the Jedi (1983), and authority figures have remained a regular assignment. Policemen, priests, judges and officials recur among his parts, alongside regular appearances in the ensembles of British crime and period dramas. Schenk offered a longer engagement: five series of Luther, followed by the 2023 film. Sir Otway in Sebastián Lelio’s The Wonder (2022) continues the run of titled men.
As Lazar Kaganovich in The Death of Stalin (2017), he joins Armando Iannucci’s ensemble, another place for an actor accustomed to playing officials. We rate the film highly because it makes its characters funny without letting them seem harmless. Simon Russell Beale is particularly unsettling, though the broader clowning sometimes makes the danger less credible. It is a film we recommend, without claiming Crowley as the principal reason to see it.
The reservation in Luther is how little the supporting cast gets to do. With Idris Elba and Ruth Wilson absorbed in their long flirtation, Crowley’s level-headed policeman offers a welcome change of pace, but Cross leaves him less room than we would like. Crowley cannot make the plotting plausible by behaving sensibly, though his restraint gives us something to enjoy when the story becomes difficult to believe. Start with Schenk, provided improbable crime stories do not spoil an evening.
Biography
Dermot Crowley is an Irish stage, film and television actor. He was born on 19 March 1947 in Cork, Ireland, and began his career in theatre, appearing at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, the National Theatre in London and on Broadway.
His screen credits include General Crix Madine in Return of the Jedi (1983), Kamp in Octopussy (1983), Barth in Babel (2006), Lambert in The Best Offer (2013), Hugh McGrath in The Foreigner (2017), Lazar Kaganovich in The Death of Stalin (2017), Sir Otway in The Wonder (2022) and DSU Martin Schenk in the series Luther (2010–2019) and the film Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023). He has also appeared in Father Ted, Poirot, Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War.
