Dickens of a job for Spall Jnr

Luke Leitch10 April 2012

Two decades ago Timothy Spall helped launch his acting career by playing Young Wackford Squeers in the legendary RSC production of Nicholas Nickleby.

Tonight his son Rafe, 18, a member of the National Youth Theatre, is launching an acting career of his own in the premiere of the same play at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith as Young Wackford's father.

At six-and-a-half hours the production has cut two hours from the RSC's original marathon, which was adapted from the Charles Dickens novel. Nevertheless, says Rafe, mastering all his lines has been no easy task.

He said: "I'm playing a man with only one eye and a Northern accent - neither of which I have. Also, he's 53. Playing an old man is very difficult; you can't just stoop and talk in a shaky voice."

It would seem the ideal time for Rafe to ask his father - known for his roles in Auf Wiedersehen Pet and Secrets And Lies - for advice, but he says: "I want to stand on my own two feet, although I think dad would encourage me in anything I want to do.

"He has warned me of the dangers of the profession and told me to be careful, but he knows I want to do it and need to do it."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in