For me, English actor and comedian Mark Gatiss will always be an ensemble cast member of the deeply weird and deeply funny League of Gentlemen:
But he’s also done a shocking number of other things, many of which are historical! Here’s a rundown, minus one production I can’t find a photo from (the role of PC Butcher in Consenting Adults [2007]).
Bowmer in The Dwelling Place (1994)
An adaptation of a Catherine Cookson romance novel.
House Agent in Bright Young Things (2003)
Fashionable high-society young people live life on the edge in 1920s-30s London.
Kenyon in Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures (2004)
A TV docudrama about the mystery writer.
Ronald Hawes in Marple: “The Murder at the Vicarage” (2004)
One of many of the Agatha Christie 1950s-set murder mystery adaptations.
John Dashwood in Sense & Sensibility (2008)
The most recent of the Jane Austen adaptation TV miniseries. He plays the snooty half-brother who won’t share the fortune with the Dashwood sisters.
Leonard Boynton in Poirot: “Appointment with Death” (2008)
One of many of the Agatha Christie 1930s-set murder mystery adaptations.
Curator in Crooked House (2008)
“Three linked episodes form an anthology story, influenced by the writings of M. R. James and Amicus horror movies, and a Māori death-mask belonging to Gatiss. They concern the ghostly secrets of the fictional Geap Manor, a recently demolished Tudor mansion,” per Wikipedia. Period? Unsure!
Ernest Dunks in Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen (2009)
A docudrama about the 1918-20 flu pandemic.
Cavor in The First Men in the Moon (2010)
During the 1969 moon landing, a young boy hears a story of men who landed on the moon in 1909.
Henry Rackham Junior in The Crimson Petal and the White (2011)
A TV miniseries adaptation of a novel about a prostitute who becomes enmeshed in an upper middle class family. Gatiss’s character is related to the main guy who hooks up with the prostitute, but it’s been too long for me to remember how.
Joan Crawford in Psychobitches (2013)
As the golden-era movie star in this hilarious short comedy sketch show about a modern therapist working with historical figures.
Honestly, just watch it!
Major Benjamin ‘Benjy’ Flint in Mapp & Lucia (2014)
A social rivalry erupts between two women in the 1930s.
Stephen Gardiner in Wolf Hall (2015)
The marriage and divorce of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, told from Thomas Cromwell’s perspective. Stephen Gardiner was an influential bishop and diplomat.
Dettweiler in Victor Frankenstein (2015)
A very-not-great take on the classic horror story.
Colonel Theakes in Dad’s Army (2016)
A feature film adaptation of a classic British TV comedy series about older men who joined the Home Guard during World War II.
Prince Regent in Taboo (2017)
England, 1814, an adventurer returns from abroad and things get dark and complicated. The Prince Regent is of course the future King George IV.
Dr. Landers in Against the Law (2017)
Two British men have an affair during the period (mid-century?) when homosexuality was illegal.
Lord Robert Cecil in Gunpowder (2017)
English Catholics plot to blow up Parliament and kill King James I in 1605. Cecil was a leading statements under Queen Elizabeth I and James I.
Giles Winslow in Christopher Robin (2018)
“Christopher Robin, now an adult, who has lost his sense of imagination, only to be reunited with his childhood friend Winnie the Pooh, whom he must escort back to the Hundred Acre Wood to find his friends,” per Wikipedia. Winslow is Robin’s boss.
Lord Marlborough in The Favourite (2018)
A black comedy about the rivalry between two favorites (the Duchess of Marlborough and Abigail Hill) as they compete for Queen Anne’s affection. Lord Marlborough is the duchess’s husband.
George III in National Theatre Live: The Madness of George III (2018)
A televised version of the play that inspired the film about King George III‘s mental illness.
Frank in Dracula (2020)
Dracula begins in Eastern Europe and goes on to battle Van Helsing and his descendants. “Frank” is Frank Renfield, Dracula’s servant and familiar.
Doctor Maclean in The Road Dance (2021)
“Set in the early years of World War I on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides” (Scotland), per Wikipedia, with otherwise too long of a summary for me to read.
Ivor Montagu in Operation Mincemeat (2021)
“During WWII, two intelligence officers use a corpse and false papers to outwit German troops,” per IMDB. Montagu was a real-life filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, film critic, writer, table tennis player, and Communist activist and spy in the 1930s.
Mr. Wickens in The Amazing Mr Blunden (2021)
Two children travel back in time to 1821 to help take care of a perhaps-haunted house.
Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story (2022)
A televised adaptation of a play based on the Dickens classic. Marley is the former business partner of Scrooge and now ghost who kicks things off.
Larry Grayson in Nolly (2023)
Grayson was a real-life comedian and television presenter.
Which is your favorite of Mark Gatiss’s many historical roles?
He was the curate not the vicar.
He’s one of those actors who seems to be in everything. I love seeing him though, and he also writes a lot. Not least he’s one of the creators/writers of Sherlock. From what I have seen of him in Making-Ofs or documentaries, I get the feeling he’s an absolute geek – an that makes me like him even more!
If you have a half-hour or so to spare, you really should watch his programme about various adaptations of DRACULA – if only to see his inclination to be a deeply earnest nerd wrestle with a more adult appreciation for various actors who have played the Prince of Darkness!
Yesssss!
I’ve always thought him an odd choice for the Duke of Marlborough. John Churchill was always considered amazingly handsome and charismatic by everyone who met him, even when an older man. Mark Gatiss – well no.
Yes, as Karin said, Mark Gatiss is in everything, and very good in most. I didn’t remember about the ducks in The Favorite until you said you didn’t either, Kendra, and then I remembered how genius that movie is and how much I liked it. I haven’t seen many of these television things, I’ll have to go look for them.
He is such a good actor. Also, he’s one of those surprising actors who, although they look very distinctive, have a chameleon-like quality in their work. I didn’t realize that he had been in so many Frock Flick projects. Perhaps because I just saw it, I’ll go with his character from Nolly as my favorite of his Frock Flick roles. Re Dracula, third and final episode of the series takes place in contemporary times, and his character is in that part of the story rather than the historical part. Great MCM choice!
I usually see him on Doctor Who. You missed Twice Upon a Time, at the end of Peter Capaldi’s run as the 12th Doctor. Gatiss played Captain Archibald Lethbridge Stewart, the ancestor of current UNIT head Kate Lethbridge Stewart. If I remember correctly, the episode takes place during the Christmas Truce of WWI. He’s in a uniform for the entire episode. Loved his baddie in Christopher Robin.
Hah, I forgot about that, but of course he had other roles on Doctor Who too, and he was also a screenwriter on it.
Wow, that really is a fine vicar/curate face (graduating to bishop as Stephen Gardiner). A worthy heir to Graham Chapman.
Re Crooked House – it is period, but not the bit he’s in! Lee Ingleby’s character finds an old door knocker and show it to a museum curator (played by Mark), who then tells him about its history in the 1700s and 1920s. It’s nicely spooky.