Sam Heughan

In Outlander (2014), Sam Heughan's Jamie Fraser is interested in how the woman he is attracted to thinks. Heughan supplies the warmth that makes the time spent getting acquainted worthwhile, allowing uncertainty into a part that could easily have settled for looking assured. We were won over by the curiosity he and Caitríona Balfe bring to the attraction. Their chemistry works because neither performance treats falling in love as something the audience should simply accept on sight.

Before Jamie, there were smaller television parts, including Adrian Chapple in Party Animals (2007). We liked that programme's young cast, although its claim to be a comedy was harder to support. Outlander gave him the breakthrough and a character to sustain across eight seasons. He ages Jamie convincingly over decades, a task that asks more of an actor than another heroic entrance.

His film work includes Sebastian in The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018), as well as parts in Bloodshot (2020) and SAS: Red Notice (2021). There is a typecasting risk here, with the familiar imposing figure offering less opportunity to find out what else he can do. His return to the stage as Macbeth for the RSC in 2025 at least puts a different demand on him. We would welcome more screen work that does the same, rather than asking him to repeat the assurance audiences already know.

For now, Balfe is the collaborator with whom his strengths are clearest. Outlander gives its heroine's perspective proper weight, including in its handling of sex, and his performance helps make the romance feel less predetermined than the casting suggests. The slow start and narration that goes on too long remain substantial caveats to our recommendation of the series. Neither cancels the pleasure of watching two people learn how the other thinks. Start there for Heughan, with some patience for the programme around him.