Lawson: the ideal screen-actor, wasted on Star Wars. So, what else has he done in his fifty year career?
Hey there! Welcome to Reviewing Denis Lawson, my journey to, you guessed it, review all the various film, tv and theatre projects Denis Lawson has ever done.
Lawson who?
Denis Stamper Lawson. (Only one ‘n’ in Denis, despite many, many, credits which would like to inform you otherwise.) Chances are if you recognise the name, you watch a lot of British Television, know the name of every person ever awarded an Olivier Award for Best Actor, or, more likely: you know him as Wedge Antilles in Star Wars.
As Wedge Antilles in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)
Despite this being his best known role, certainly internationally, it … isn’t his best work. Being included in all three Original Trilogy films is certainly an achievement, but his screentime is limited, his lines are dubbed over in the first two movies, and he wasn’t even initially cast in the part! Notoriously slightly tetchy about his part in it—though recent years have seen a mellowing of his opinions on it—it’s only when viewing the rest of his body of work that one might understand exactly why, in the wake of all the work he’s done over his fifty year career, he might be upset that the only thing the press can ask him about is his small part in some space movies forty years ago.
Hopefully over the course of this blog we can all go and discover all the other wonderful things he’s been in over the years.
Such as?
Lawson’s early career is marked with a host of bit-part television roles and theatre performances. He started getting regular television work around 1977, but his first noteworthy career performance would come when he was cast in Half Moon Production’s 1980 revival of Pal Joey. Cast as ‘Joey’ alongside Sian Phillips, the show was a smash hit and transferred to the West End. In 1983, he went on to star in Mr Cinders, which won him an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
As Gordon Urquhart, in Local Hero (1983)
In 1983 he had another breakthrough: Local Hero. In Bill Forsyth’s charming film about an American attempting to negotiate purchase a sleepy Scottish village to build an oil refinery, Lawson finally has a chance to shine. New Yorker critic Pauline Kael noted him as ‘an ideal screen actor’ in his role as Gordon Urquhart. (Later, in her review of Return of the Jedi, she notes the film’s failure to take advantage of him, saying ‘you’d never know he was anything special’.)
1984 brought us The Kit Curran Radio Show, showcasing his improv and comedy skills. 1986 saw him appear twice with Lindsay Duncan; in Dead Head, a murder-mystery-conspiracy series where nothing is as it seems, and in a second series of Kit Curran. In 1989 he played Scottish-Italian lawyer David Rossi in The Justice Game. He had a starring role alongside Pauline Collins in The Ambassador (1998–1999), which is probably one of my favourite things he’s ever been in.
As John Stone, in The Ambassador (1998)
In 2005, he was Emmy-nominated for his role as John Jarndyce in the BBC’s production of Bleak House. Other projects include Sensitive Skin (2005), Jekyll (2007), Criminal Justice (2009), Marchlands (2011), Perfect Sense (2011), The Machine (2013) and Holby City (2002–2004, 2019). He’s probably most widely recognised amongst by the British public now for his role in New Tricks (2012–2015) as Scottish detective Steve McAndrew, replacing James Bolan in the first major cast change in the series in nine years.
In 2018 he was also part of a UK tour of ART, alongside Nigel Havers and Stephen Tompkinson. A publicity shot from this show is featured as our blog header! This tour has continued into 2019, so you might still be in a chance of seeing it.
So where are you going to start?
After much consideration about what would be the best introduction to Denis Lawson’s many varied talents, I figured we’d start in 1984, with The Kit Curran Radio Show.
You might even get to find out why oh why he wore this, truly stupendously incredible outfit. And if you’ve ever wanted to see Lawson play a rogue, well—watch out, because Kit is certainly up to no good.
Notes:
Pal Joey and Mr Cinders both have officially recorded Cast Albums! You can find a re-releases of the Pal Joey and Mr Cinders albums on Spotify, both of which are cut down (so if you can track down the original releases I recommend them!). Pal Joey is missing ‘You Mustn’t Kick it Around’ ‘Pal Joey’ ‘Plant you Now’ ‘Do it the Hard Way’, and both reprises of ‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered’. Mr Cinders is missing ‘I Want the World to Know’ ‘At the Ball’ ‘Entracte’ ‘Please Mr. Cinders’ ‘Every Little Moment’ and a couple of reprises. But both are good examples of his singing talents.
