Rafe Spall

Rafe Spall is often the man who has not quite got his life together. In Shaun of the Dead (2004), his Noel belongs to a supporting cast that keeps Edgar Wright's zombie comedy engaging even when the horror becomes familiar. We laughed at the ordinary failings, then found ourselves worrying about the same people because Wright makes the danger count. Spall's place in that ensemble is a useful starting point: we value him as an actor who can make an ordinary character worth noticing without needing the film to stop for him.

Hot Fuzz (2007), with Spall as DC Andy Cartwright, continued the association with Wright and Simon Pegg. Supporting parts in Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012) and the ensemble drama The Big Short (2015) took him beyond British comedy. Television gave him a more sustained lead as Jason Ross opposite Esther Smith in Trying (2020). That is a welcome change of scale for an actor so often cast as the recognisable everyman.

The honesty of his character work in X+Y (2014) helps explain why that casting persists. We would still like to see him asked to do more than make another feckless man agreeable. His one-man stage performance in Death of England (2020) brings physical and emotional intensity that the everyman description scarcely accounts for. More screen roles that ask for that force would be welcome.

Smoke (2025) is a reminder that casting can only do so much. Spall plays Steven Burk in a series whose actors make it worth considering, with Taron Egerton and Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine the particular strengths. The arson investigation cannot sustain nine episodes, and its repetitions become frustrating; none of the casting fixes that. Our confidence in Spall comes with that practical caveat: his presence is a reason to be interested, not a guarantee of a good evening. Start with Shaun of the Dead, but expect the horror to matter as much as the comedy.