James Harkness

Craig Myers has a job and a family in The Victim (2019), and Harkness makes those ordinary facts matter when the bus driver comes under suspicion. We cared about Myers because Harkness made the pressured family man credible. Kelly Macdonald supplies the series' emotional weight, but Harkness has enough substance to stop her becoming its only reason to watch. Alongside John Hannah, whose DI Steven Grover brings a useful steadiness, he helps make this a properly shared drama. The plotting sometimes presses too hard; the cast gives us reasons to stay.

His early screen work included Angus in Justin Kurzel's Macbeth (2015) and Private Basteren in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), small parts before the larger opportunity of Myers. The Victim was the significant turn, giving him a leading role and wider recognition. Prominent roles followed in The Nest (2020) and The English Game (2020), where he played Jimmy Love. Ensemble work in Gangs of London (2020) and Raised by Wolves (2022) sits alongside that move towards leading parts. Of those television appearances, Myers gives us the firmest grounds for recommending him.

Film has continued to use him in smaller roles, among them Footman Paul in Pablo Larraín's Spencer (2021). That supporting work fits the quality we value in Myers: Harkness can give a character weight without making the performance seem an interruption to everybody else's. We should be cautious about treating a varied list of credits as proof that every kind of part suits him equally well. Our enthusiasm rests on the grounded presence he brings to an ordinary man under duress, and we would welcome more leading roles that test him differently. Start with The Victim for the substantial role, with a little patience for the plotting when it pushes too hard.