Ricky Tomlinson

In Riff-Raff (1991), Ricky Tomlinson’s Larry talks as though the conversation began before the scene and will continue after it. He fits among the building-site workers without making every exchange an occasion for a performance. We laughed at the rough workplace conversations because his ease made the men seem familiar to one another. Robert Carlyle’s Stevie holds our attention, but Tomlinson helps make the group worth watching in its own right.

The familiar television face was established as Bobby Grant in Brookside (1982), before the film work with Ken Loach. Raining Stones (1993) continued that collaboration, which suits his unforced way with social-realist drama. Loach makes good use of a performer who can carry a joke without making the surrounding scene feel rehearsed. Riff-Raff also shows the limits of what that casting can achieve. The romance is less convincing than the workplace scenes, and some passages ramble; we enjoy the workers without wishing every conversation longer.

In Cracker (1993), he plays DCI Charlie Wise alongside Robbie Coltrane, within a crime drama we rate highly. Coltrane’s Fitz is the centre of that recommendation, his humour making an exhausting man compelling. The writing sometimes presses too hard, and Tomlinson is a supporting presence rather than the principal attraction. It is also a useful place to look beyond the comedy with which he is most closely associated.

Jim Royle, the lazy, blunt patriarch of The Royle Family (1998), gave that comic reputation its defining role. With co-star and co-creator Caroline Aherne, Tomlinson has the timing to make such a man entertaining without requiring him to become agreeable. We are less interested when the slovenliness becomes the whole joke, a restriction that can make the character seem smaller than the actor. Start with Riff-Raff, where he has good company and room to be funny without taking over.