Actor Adrian Lukis talks with journalist Ali Vowles about fame, fortune, tights, and the joy of a career that’s taken him from Bath cafés to Hollywood film sets ahead of his performance of his one-man show Being Mr Wickham at the Old Theatre Royal.
Adrian Lukis has one of those recognisable faces. You’ll have seen him scores of times on TV, in the cinema and on the stage but sometimes people struggle to put a name to the face – and he tells me he couldn’t be happier about that. We were chatting about his one man show, Being Mr Wickham, which is on in Bath this month as part of the 250th anniversary celebrations of the birth of Jane Austen.
Adrian’s CV covers everything from the BBC’s unforgettable Pride and Prejudice, Poldark and The Crown to SAS Rogue Heroes, Anatomy of a Scandal, Peak Practice, and the Bristol-based The Outlaws. He’s filming in the States after his theatre tour finishes and is currently doing a remake of Kind Hearts and Coronets with the actor, Glen Powell. He’s also just filmed two episodes of The Marlow Murder Club. As he says, life is busy.
“I can honestly say that I’m glad that I’ve never had the level of fame of someone like Brad Pitt or George Clooney. You know if people like them go into a pub, they’ve got about 10 minutes before they have to leave. My ‘fame’ came playing Mr Wickham in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice – he was a big character and it was a huge series. But I’m lucky – when the heat dies down so does the recognition! I live a lovely life and still see my old mates – I’m very lucky.”
Life in Bath
Adrian was brought up in Adelaide where his father, who was in the Royal Marines had been posted. When he was nine, the family moved back to the UK, settling in the village of Steeple Ashton near Trowbridge.
Aged 18 he moved to Bath to find work. He describes the city in the mid 1970s as being a real mix of the posh and young revolutionaries, an alternative scene with lots of anarchic street theatre and art in Walcot Street.
For a year he worked as a waiter in Parsenn Sally, the legendary cafe on Milsom Street.
“You never knew who you might meet. It was frequented by Roddy Llewellyn, who was seeing Princess Margaret. It was a very, very, very posh crowd. I saw all life there. Once, staff were told to wear medieval costumes. Imagine me in tights – 18 with long hair – handing out some hash cakes to all the guests arriving in limos with their friends from London. I even got advice from Peter Gabriel, who was a customer, about whether I should accept a too-good-to-be-true record deal for a band I was in with my mates. I was so in awe of him being in Genesis I could hardly speak! That year is definitely something I want to write about in my memoirs.”
Next came university and following a childhood love of acting in school productions, he studied drama.
“From then on, all I wanted to do was act and write. What I loved about plays and the theatre was how they took apart human behaviour.”
He joined a theatre company touring schools and loved it.
“I remember opening my first pay cheque and just thinking ‘I can’t believe I’m being paid to act’.”
He worked in Rep at various theatres and after several auditions got a big break on television with a new 13-part Granada TV series called After the War by Frederic Raphael.
“I was playing the lead. I found myself doing interviews with the Daily Mail, huge double page spreads telling me I was going to be a big star! Then Margaret Thatcher made all the independent TV companies compete against each other and the series was dropped, it was viewed as too intellectual to get high ratings. So, I was in this peculiar position of having to go back to square one to try and be a successful actor.”
Above L-R: Adrian Lukis in Feel Good with Lisa Kudrow. Image courtesy NetfliX; Adrian Lukis in The Outlaws. Image © BBC/World Productions
Pride and Prejudice success
Despite the initial disappointment, Adrian’s TV and film career took off when he was offered the role of Mr Wickham in Pride and Prejudice, but almost didn’t get the part. He was initially given a smaller role but was then switched to play Mr Wickham.
“None of us knew it was going to be such a huge success. I think we would have all been astonished to see what a cult series it has become.”
When he turned 60 this hard-working actor decided he wanted to fulfil a lifelong ambition to write. He’s often said he loves playing cads because they’re more interesting. So, he decided to write about Jane Austen’s upper-class bounder, Wickham, a few decades on from when we left him married to Lydia in Pride and Prejudice.
Darcy’s a prig, isn’t he? But then Wickham arrives somewhere and everyone says, ‘Great, let’s get the party started!
“People always asked me what was it like to play him – he’s such a rotter, such a cad – and I would find myself kind of defending him. Darcy’s a prig, isn’t he? But then Wickham arrives somewhere and everyone says, ‘Great, let’s get the party started! Just don’t expect him to pick up the tab at the end of the evening!”
I thought I’ll write a play around him and directly address the audience – saying this is who I am. He deceives Elizabeth and deceives everybody. He’ll even admit to the odd mistake. But essentially, at the end of the evening, I hope the audience will leave going “what a great guy.”
Having toured the one-man show for over a year he is now writing a novel based on Mr Wickham. But is he particularly looking forward to his shows in Bath?
“Yes! It’s so special to be performing in what was the Old Theatre Royal where Jane Austen actually went to the theatre. Just brilliant! What a tribute to her longevity. And to resurrect what is one of her dissolute bad boys and let him be centre stage – what more could I ask for?”
Being Mr Wickham is on at the Old Theatre Royal, 20-21 September, 1pm & 5:30pm. Visit oldtheatreroyal.com or bathboxoffice.org.uk