Timothy Spall is an actor with a filmography that encompasses everything from the cornerstones
of Western literature to the most modern-minded pieces in contemporary cinema — and is studded
with awards and accolades of every kind. Here are a few of the films you might have seen
him in.
Spall might play a different character in a very different setting in Tim Burton's adaptation
of Sweeney Todd, but Potterheads will likely notice more than a few similarities with Peter
Pettigrew. His character, Beadle Bamford, is a wretched, gleeful servant of Alan Rickman's
sinister Judge Turpin, a man whose power he clings to in the hopes that some might rub
off on him. He is deeply duplicitous, luring innocents into Turpin's path through carefully
deployed secrets and lies, skimming whatever he can off the top whenever he can get away
with it. And he’s not even the villain of this story, so much as he is a pitiful also-ran
with delusions of grandeur.
“Will Beadle Bamford be the judge?”
“Glad, as always, to oblige my friends and neighbors.”
Above all of these similarities to Pettigrew, however, is the sheer quality of Spall's performance.
No one could have been as perfectly servile as he is in the role, nor so sumptuously aware
of his character's impotence. Spall plays Bamford like a man who thinks he's on the
up-and-up, with an actor's awareness of the fact that he definitely isn’t.
As Winston Churchill in The King’s Speech, Spall plays a larger-than-life role — yet
in the context of this movie, it’s not exactly a starring one. Spall is instead a supporting
player to Colin Firth as King George VI in this portrayal of the king's struggle to master
his persistent stammer. As the movie winds on, tensions across Europe begins to brew,
and Spall's Churchill finds himself unable make the declaration of war against Nazi Germany
by himself. That is a duty that falls to the King, and the King alone.
And so, the training begins to take the King from his impenetrable stutter to smooth, confident
recitation. The presence of Spall's Churchill is a grounding force in the film's final scenes,
in which King George VI accomplishes his goal and changes the world, with nothing but the
power of his voice, a microphone, and radio broadcasting.
A rollicking, ruthless portrayal of art and what fuels it, the critically-acclaimed biopic
Mr. Turner sees Spall play the painter J. M. W. Turner. Accounts of the time depicted
Turner as consciously refusing the trappings of fame, tying himself to ship’s masts to
better paint sea scenes, and never quite fitting in with his colleagues at the Royal Academy
of Art. But his work was utterly sublime, capturing the power and violence of nature
as readily as its grace and tranquility.
He was a deeply complicated figure, and Spall fills the role like no one else could. In
a way, the actor takes to the role as Turner himself took to painting — passionately
and skilfully.
“You’ve always been preoccupied. You’re too preoccupied for your own good, sir.”
Spall plays another villainous henchman in Disney’s Enchanted. The film sees Giselle,
a woodland princess from the magical land of Andalasia, trapped in New York City when
the wicked Queen Narissa pushes her into a dimension-spanning portal. Narissa sends forth
her helplessly lovesick minion Nathaniel, to keep an eye on Giselle and generally do
her bidding.
Spall gets to be quite a bit funnier here than as Peter Pettigrew or Beadle Bamford,
and, unlike with those other characters, ultimately gets to find his redemption. Our last glimpse
of Nathaniel in Enchanted finds him promoting a self-help book about his experiences, with
a long and ardent line of autograph-seekers waiting to meet him. Here, Spall proves that
not all of his servile wretches need to be totally loathsome — he can make you root
for them too.
Unique among these entries, the BBC series Timothy Spall at Sea is about the man himself.
He and his wife Shane are dedicated sailing enthusiasts, and this BBC program follows
them on their journeys around the British coast, aboard their Dutch barge, the Princess
Matilda. Spall is a delightful guide to the world of galleys and moorings — his passion
for the freedom of life on the seas shining through at every moment.
Three series have been produced: Somewhere at Sea, Back at Sea, and All at Sea. Though
Spall's skill and expertise is an enormous part of the show, the foibles of sea life
are part of it as well. The couple infamously became lost in 2011, and had to be guided
back to safety by the authorities of the town of Sheerness. Nevertheless, Timothy Spall
sails on.
Spall teamed up with director Mike Leigh for All or Nothing, centered around three working-class
families and the traumas and victories that define their lives. Spall plays Phil, a father
and taxi driver caught in a web of addiction, dead-end jobs, and family squabbling that
encompasses roughly a dozen people by the time the film reaches its end.
Spall's character lives a life that edges on bleak, yet he keeps away from toppling
into true despair — something that, if anything, makes the character even more heart-rending.
His performance has its feet planted firmly in moments of extreme dysfunction and steadfast
love, an honesty that catapults All or Nothing into greatness. It's easy to see why Spall
is one of Leigh's go-to performers. Together, they find the eye of the storm that is modern
life in the U.K.
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