
You know English actor Joseph Mawle from Game of Thrones, but he’s actually been in a number of historical films and TV series too. He’s currently playing Sir Walter Raleigh in Mary & George, and will be in Terence Malick’s Jesus film The Way of the Wind and joins a whole lot of boys in the Battle of Hastings/William the Conquerer TV series King and Conqueror. Let’s check out what he’s been up to in the past!
Note: there’s three roles I can’t find photos of him for, which are Village Man in Merlin (1998), Fred Dawson in Foyle’s War (2008), and Gordon in Made in Dagenham (2010).
Sir Tificate & Sir Gestion in Sir Gadabout, the Worst Knight in the Land (2002)
A British children’s comedy TV series that’s based on the King Arthur legends.

Lt Ian Cox RN in Dunkirk (2004)
Not the recent feature film, but a TV docudrama about the Dunkirk evacuation during World War II.

Fred Greenwood in The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton (2006)
A British bio-series about the mid-19th century’s answer to Martha Stewart (Isabella Beeton, who wrote several popular housekeeping books).

Harry Harville in Persuasion (2007)
The injured war veteran who’s briefly floated as a match for Anne in the Jane Austen adaptation.

Jesus in The Passion (2008)
Hmm, I sense a Biblical theme here! This was a TV miniseries.

Alvarr in Merlin (2009)
Another round in a King Arthur story. No idea who Alvarr is, and he’s only in one episode.



Antonio Foscarelli in Poirot: “Murder on the Orient Express” (2010)
Foscarelli is an Italian-American car salesman in the iconic Agatha Christie story.

Gerald Crich in Women in Love (2011)
A British TV adaptation of two D.H. Lawrence novels (The Rainbow and Women in Love). All I remember is it pissed me off.



Edward Judd in The Awakening (2011)
A supernatural film set in 1921 at an English boys’ boarding school.

Jack Firebrace in Birdsong (2012)
A World War I-set story about two separated lovers. Total snooze-fest, sadly.

Thomas Lincoln in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
Do you need to know anything more than that title?

Richard in Half of a Yellow Sun (2013)
Set in Nigeria between independence (1960) and civil war (1970).

Benjamin Lawrence in In the Heart of the Sea (2015)
Men against the sea, c. 1820.

Det. Insp. Jedediah Shine in Ripper Street (2013-16)
A British TV mystery series set in the 1880s in Whitechapel, London (where the Jack the Ripper murders occurred). Shine is a recurring character in several seasons.


Odysseus in Troy: Fall of a City (2018)
A TV miniseries adaptation of the Homer epic, about the Trojan War. Odysseus was the king of Ithaca in modern Greece.

George Orwell in Mr. Jones (2019)
Based on a true story, about a British journalist who discovers/publicizes the famine that occurred in 1930s Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union). The journalist meets real-life author Orwell at some point. I’ll probably watch this eventually, as I do love mid-century suffering!
Captain Shipley in 1923 (2022-23)
A prequel to the TV series Yellowstone, set in 1920s Montana(?).
Sir Walter Releigh* in Mary & George (2024)
*Yes that’s how it’s spelled in the credits.
Raleigh shows up in episode 5, in which “Diego, Count of Gondomar, arrives to tell King James of an attack by the English, led by Sir Walter Raleigh, on the Spanish in Guiana, defying a standing Treaty of London (1604),” per Wikipedia.

What’s your favorite of Joseph Mawle’s historical roles?
I really love his acting. He’s fantastic. And he’s mostly deaf too! Amazing stuff.
Mr. Jones is a very good movie. Rarely does the Holodomor appear on the screen.
Funnily enough I remember him best as the very creepy drug dealer Nyx in the not-period Sense8, but he was great in Half of a Yellow Sun (as was the rest of the incredibly stacked cast; Thandiwe Newton, Anika Noni Rose, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Onyeka Onwenu and John Boyega? Hello!)
I admire MARY & GEORGE’s commitment to Historical Accuracy with that period accurate ‘It’s our letter, we can spell it however we please!’ approach.
From my ongoing Merlin rewatch: Alvarr is a warlock/bandit who kills a Knight of Camelot and is arrested and tried. He manipulates Morgana (lady in the green cloak) into freeing him from prison and escapes at the end of the episode. In the grand scheme of the show he’s one of the only guys to ever try putting the moves on Morgana Pendragon and kind of succeeding.
Interesting face; well made for history flicks.
Shame you couldn’t find a picture of him when he was in a boxing match in “Ripper Street’………….damn!!