RUSSELL TOVEY - No.1

G'day,

This is a fan blog where I share pictures of Russell Tovey a young English actor who is a star on the rise. I don't think too many people in Oz (Australia) would know his name but I am starting this fan page now because I know he's going to be really HUGE one day!

Russell Tovey was born 1981 and grew up in Billericay Essex England, not far from Rochford where my First Fleet convict ancestor Anthony Rope was born.

Russell is about the same age as my second child and in many ways he looks like my son. Russell's parents are George and Carole Tovey and his brother is Daniel. The family still live in Billericay as of 2010. Rusty has his own place in London but it's only a short journey back to his old home.

Firstly, here is a copy of a UK newspaper article explaining the rise of Russell...

By Byrony Gordon

Published: 6:00AM GMT 17 Mar 2009

People think that they don't know Russell Tovey, but they do.

Talking about him to almost anybody is like speaking to a slightly senile grandparent about somebody they see all the time – the gardener, the postman, their own son – in that it takes a while, but with a little gentle nudging they get there.

"Russell Tovey?" they say blankly. "I'm afraid I have never heard of him." So you mention that he played the slightly clueless character of Rudge inThe History Boys, first in London, then on Broadway, and finally in the movie. A flicker of recognition passes over their faces. Next, you mention his role in Gavin and Stacey, as one of Gavin's laddish best mates Budgie. An eyebrow is raised. Finally, you point out that Russell Tovey recently spent several months on prime time BBC1, playing John Chivery, a prison watchmen whose unrequited love for Little Dorrit was acted with such heartbreaking intensity that it probably made you cry a bit. And ahah, the light bulb pings on. "Oh HIM!" they sigh. "Why ever didn't you say?"

Tovey, 27, sits before me on a balcony overlooking Soho, smoking and drinking some ginger ale, and concedes that yes, this is the response he normally elicits. Though actually, he says, most people recognise him from Gavin and Stacey

"Someone will come up to me on the street and say, 'do I know you? What have you been in?' And I'll list The History Boys, Little Dorrit, Doctor Who [he was in a Christmas special, and was once touted as the new doctor, of which more later], and they'll say 'no, no, I know you from Gavin and Stacey!'" He shakes his head. "But I've only been in it a couple of times. I've spoken about three lines, as a favour to my friend James [Corden, also of whom more later]. What about all the other stuff I have done?" He smiles and notes that the cigarette has given him a slight head rush.

Yet Tovey is starting to get recognised. Slowly, but surely, and more importantly, by the right people. The other day he was walking through Soho when Matt Lucas approached him to congratulate him on his performance in Being Human, the recent BBC series in which he played a werewolf who lives in a Bristol flat with a ghost and a vampire. Being Human was hidden away in the wastelands of BBC3, but Lucas, like many other critics, observed that it was surely only a matter of time before it jumped to BBC1 or 2 (just as Little Britain did). "So that was nice," smiles Tovey. "Fingers crossed and all that."

Who else has taken a shine to Tovey? Where do I start? Alan Bennett is as good a place as any – the pair are now firm friends after The History Boys ("I go around to his place and have nice dinners and slag people off. Ha ha, not really".) Nicholas Hytner, the artistic director of the National Theatre, is also a friend, and after this interview he is off to see La Cage aux Folle with him.

Patrick Marber cast Tovey at the National when he was just 19. Russell T Davies wanted to make him the new Doctor Who, saying that "he's going to be huge, that man" and describing him as "amazing." Also fans of Tovey: the artists Stella Vine and Tracey Emin – he is friends with Vine on Facebook and goes out and gets drunk with Emin from time to time.

Which is all quite something for a boy who says he is most commonly mistaken for the children's character Pob, and who still lives in his home town of Billericay in Essex.

It is perhaps ironic that originally, Tovey wanted to be a history teacher. But then he watched Dead Poets Society and became "obsessed" with the idea of acting; he wanted to go to stage school, but his parents wouldn't let him. "They thought it would just be a phase and that when I came out of it all I would have was a ballet degree or something." He was allowed to join a drama club, though, and from there he was picked up by a children's agent, eventually being cast in Mud, a children's series which also starred a young Russell Brand.

So he would go off to film that, and then go back to school "which was kind of weird. Horrible actually. Because I didn't know anybody and everybody had their own friends. I got suspended twice, once for calling my French teacher sweetheart, and another time when I was caught by the headmistress for eating cake in the girls toilets. The memory makes him laugh out loud, because Tovey had always known that he was gay.

"I came out to my parents when I was 18. My dad had problems with it. He found it really weird. But we get on well now."

After school he got himself a proper agent and was soon treading the boards in Chichester, where he was directed by Debra Gillett, the wife of Patrick Marber. She introduced him to her husband, who cast him at the National in his play Howard Katz; next came His Girl Friday, His Dark Materials and then the chance to audition for Bennett for a part in The History Boys.

What was it like, being the Billericay boy shoved in front of such cultural giants as Marber and Bennett? He laughs at the slightly patronising tone of my question. "You know, I had read a lot of plays before I got there. Hare, Mamet, and so on. But I quite like it, that world. It's safe. It's happy."

He says he has a tendency to overplay his roots sometimes. "I think what I do, when I meet someone I am supposed to be really respectful to, is that I become even more common. I'm like, AWIGHT?" He puts on a rude boy accent and laughs. "We have all these fund-raisers at the National and everyone is really posh and I play up my commonness, as if a wild animal has been un-caged among them. But I think that they like it, really."

He is currently at the Royal Court, winning plaudits for his role as a psychotic Iraqi soldier in the play A Miracle, and he is doing a bit of writing, trying to make a short film. He would love to start up a production company with his fellow History Boys, in the style of Natural Nylon, the 90s outfit created by Jude Law, Sadie Frost and Ewan McGregor. The History Boys are still incredibly close, especially he and Corden, who based Gavin and Stacey in Billericay in homage to Tovey. "He's a beautiful kisser," says Tovey, almost spitting out this ginger ale. "So romantic."

So what now? Does he fancy Hollywood? "Who doesn't? But I'm not in a big race for it. And I'm too quirky looking. I'm not a romantic lead. I have sticking out ears, and a little troll nose." What about Doctor Who, which in the end went to Matt Smith, another History Boy? Is he disappointed not to have got the role? "No!" he says, quick as a flash. "Matt is absolutely brilliant. And I've always set my eye on the assistant role. I think it would be cool to have a male assistant."

He takes another swig of his ginger ale. "It was nice to be considered, but it was never really an option because the whole idea terrifies me. I don't think I am ready for that pressure. It's true. I have had a nice year, with Little Dorrit, and Being Human, and now this play A Miracle. Doctor Who would be overnight fame that would last for three years, and then what? I'm in this for the long term."

Which sums up nicely, I think, the reason why Russell Tovey will one day be a name that everybody recognises.

Above: Russell as midshipman Alonso Frame taken from the Dr Who episode The End Of Time. As a dedicated Dr Who and Torchwood fan I know from my contacts that Alonso Frame (Mr. Russell Tovey) is a name known around the world.

Can I open my eyes? Is it over now? Please say it is!