Francis Magee

Francis Magee spent eight years as a fisherman before he became an actor, and played in bands along the way, including Namoza, who put out four singles and an album. He was born in Dublin in 1959 and raised between Ireland and the Isle of Man. He trained at the Poor School in King's Cross, and his first widely seen role was Liam Tyler in EastEnders from 1993 to 1995.

That biography is not decoration. The reason he works constantly is a face and a voice that have obviously done physical labour, which is a quality casting directors cannot manufacture. Read his credits and the pattern is immediate: Fuse Cutter in Sahara, Grizzly Rebel in Rogue One, the Ancient King of Men in Justice League, Ordgar the Housecarl in 1066, Skuli in The Damned. Job descriptions, not characters, and he makes each one feel like a man with a life outside the frame.

The better parts have come from British and Irish crime and period drama: Paul in Layer Cake, Lester Nowicki in Absentia, Clint Collins in White Lines, Frank McDonnell in The Tourist, Spence in The Frankenstein Chronicles, Saul in The Bible, plus an episode of Black Mirror and a run on Kin.

The outlier, and the role younger viewers know him from, is Victor Rodenmaar Jr. in House of Anubis, a children's mystery series where he plays the looming, sinister caretaker with an entirely straight face. It is a completely different register and he is very good in it.