Jamie Foreman gives his hard men plenty to say, and enough vulnerability to make the talk revealing. We value him most when a director lets him be more than the familiar London heavy; repeated gangster casting has too often kept him there.
Fi1m perspective
Jamie Foreman's Mark in Nil by Mouth (1997) is a talker, with the energy to make the talking itself worth watching. The masculine bluster has vulnerability beneath it, and he lets both show without making a separate business of either. We were unsettled by him because his verbal confidence never quite convinced us that the man felt secure. Gary Oldman gives him room within an ensemble alongside Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke. It is the strongest starting point for his work, though the film runs long and an explanatory speech tells us what the actors have already made clear.
His supporting work in the 1990s led towards more prominent crime and period parts, with Saving Grace (2000) offering a comic detour. He plays China MacFarlane in Nigel Cole's cannabis farce, which depends chiefly on Brenda Blethyn and its central friendship. We find the friendship more convincing than the increasingly busy comedy. The familiar jokes wear thin, and there is only so much that a supporting cast can do about that. It is worth considering for Blethyn, but it tells us less about why Foreman merits attention than Nil by Mouth does.
Matthew Vaughn's Layer Cake (2004) uses him as the low-level drug dealer Duke, while Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist (2005) gives him Bill Sikes. The casting suggests how readily he can be filed under menace. As Sikes, his naturalistic performance admits vulnerability alongside the menace. We prefer him when a director makes use of that uncertainty, as Oldman does, rather than relying on a recognisable tough man to complete the cast.
EastEnders cast him as Derek Branning in 2011–2012, and the Rise of the Footsoldier series has brought him back as Sam from 2017. Repeated gangster parts risk making the next entrance too predictable, however much conviction he brings. We would like more directors to give his verbal inventiveness something other than intimidation to do. Start with Nil by Mouth, provided a gruelling family drama is what the evening can bear.
Biography
Jamie Foreman is an English actor. Born on 25 May 1958 in Bermondsey, London, he trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.
He played Mark in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth (1997) and appeared in Elizabeth (1998), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Gangster No. 1 (2000) and Saving Grace (2000). He is known for the roles of Duke in Layer Cake (2004) and Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist (2005), as well as Eddie Connolly in the 2006 Doctor Who episode "The Idiot's Lantern" and Derek Branning in EastEnders (2011–2012).
Foreman is the son of Freddie Foreman, a former south London gangster. He was married to actress Carol Harrison.
