Scottish star Peter Capaldi brings blistering, curmudgeonly wit to whatever role he takes on, from the Doctor to his menacing new baddie in The Devil’s Hour. Here’s 5 of his best roles in Stephen A Russell’s mind.
The Devil's Hour: Season 1
Depending on your vintage, you may have come to the considerable charms (and occasional cranky fantastic) of Glasgow-born actor and The Devil’s Hour star Peter Capaldi via his stint in the TARDIS. It would seem that once you’re done saving all of time and space, sometimes you turn to the dark side.
Look at what all those former Doctor Whos have been up to: Matt Smith has been scowling around Westeros in House of the Dragon, David Tennant played a real-life serial killer in Des and a complicated demon in Good Omens. And now Peter Capaldi delivers a terrifying turn in as Gideon, a possible serial killer situated at the heart of a bone-chilling narrative about a battered social worker who mysteriously wakes in fright every night at 3.33am.
After watching the first two episodes, we’re freaked out by this mysterious turn from the always-excellent Capaldi, now sporting a blood red jumpsuit in addition to his trademark shock of grey hair. We say that he’s a possible serial killer because the Prime Video show, created by Tom Moran, is in no rush to reveal the secrets of its twisty turny, non-linear tale that may also involve supernatural forces.
More than just a phone booth-frequenting Time Lord, this powerhouse Scottish actor has many other strings to his bow. From an insult-spitting spin doctor to a World World I poet, here are his five greatest performances.
Doctor Who
Capaldi has been working solidly since the early 80s, but he won millions of new fans when he stepped into the TARDIS in season eight of the long-running British sci-fi series. Regenerating from Matt Smith’s overly exuberant iteration (after earlier popping up on the show as an erupting Vesuvius-adjacent Roman merchant), Capaldi’s somewhat cranky approach to the iconic role drew comparisons to the first Doctor, William Hartnell.
But he made it his own with a mercurial charm that brought gravitas back to the universe-hopping Time Lord in a big way. Though we were never quite sold by him swapping the Doc’s trusty sonic screwdriver for sunglasses…
The Thick of It
“He’s as useless as a marzipan dildo.” Uttered by Capaldi’s perma-furious spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in Armando Iannucci’s satirical take-down of hollow politicians and the faceless folks behind them, it’s one of the most savagely funny barbs ever delivered in televisual history. This Machiavellian character is loosely based on then-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s communications director Alastair Campbell—once described as the Darth Vader of Whitehall.
Gleefully vicious and armed with a NSFW way with words, watching him cut down pathetically waffling politicians is a pleasure. While the ensemble is unanimously magnificent, it’s Capaldi who’ll be quoted forever. Loose spin-off film In the Loop pits the character against the late, great James Gandolfini as a US general, and it’s as awesome as you’d expect.
Benediction
For a change of pace, check out Capaldi’s haunting turn as the World War One hero-turned poet and conscientious objector Siegfried Sassoon in this elegiac biopic from A Quiet Passion filmmaker Terence Davies. For the majority of the movie, we follow Dunkirk actor Jack Lowden in the role as a young man grappling with his sexuality, but managing to have fun along the way. Which is what makes Capaldi’s stint as the older Sassoon all the more devastating.
Bringing the emotional heft, we see the bitter shadow of a man living a lie, unhappily married to fellow poet Hester Gatty (God’s Own Country star Gemma Jones). After all he sacrificed for his country, and the wise words he wrote against war, the biopic of Sassoon is sorrowful but beautifully done.
Local Hero
This trippy little David v Goliath story on Prime Video is a weird gem from Capaldi’s home country days. He plays a plucky Scotsman tasked by Burt Lancaster’s big bad American oil baron to buy up a beautiful bayside fishing village for drilling purposes. As you might have guessed, he has second thoughts after falling for this stunning corner of Scotland and its kooky and somewhat cute inhabitants. Capaldi is absolutely adorable in Bill Forysth’s follow-up to Gregory’s Girl, which is just as sweet with a hint of a fairy tale ending too.
The Lair of the White Worm
And for our most bonkers pick, you can’t go past a kilted Capaldi doing battle with a snake-demon possessed policeman with the aid of his trusty bagpipes. He has an absolute hoot this camp realisation of an old English myth first spun into a novel by Dracula author Bram Stoker then adapted for the big screen by The Devils writer/director Ken Russell. An absolute scream, it pits a bouffant-haired Capaldi, looking for all the world like an oversized Harry Potter, and a baby-faced Hugh Grant against Amanda Donohoe’s spectacularly slithering villain Lady Sylvia Marsh.
Plus there’s a dubious-looking sock puppet of a big, bad worm, to which Capaldi can only respond “holy shit” in his broadest Scottish brogue. Deliriously silly and saucy, right down to a devilish twist ending revealed with Capaldi flashing a bit of knee.
