MovieChat Forums > He Kills Coppers (2008) Discussion > Rafe Spall - poor acting

Rafe Spall - poor acting

posted 16 years ago by ifstacey
7 replies | jump to latest

Does anyone else find the acting by Spall poor in this series ? From what I have seen he is normally very good, but I find him incredibly irritating in this role - poor casting perhaps

[–] junk-mail-4 16 years ago

Hm, I found him to be excellent. The character is a complex role, I think he handled it very well.

[–] ikinmoore 16 years ago

I confess I was a bit disppointed with the whole thing. May be I was expecting him to be like a Jack Regan from the Flying Squad but he was reasonable Okay. I have seen him in better roles. Ralf will be appearing in Frankie Howards play on Wednesday night so I expect him to be brilliant.

The best films are made in an intelligent format.

[–] junk-mail-4 16 years ago

I think perhaps he went far more for the style of Arnotts writing then the rest of the cast. His turn was very like somethigm from The Long Firm, which was more stylised then He Kills Coppers. I really enjoyed him in it, it;s a turn that would have been at home in The Sweeney I think.

[–] TrevorAclea 15 years ago

He was pretty atrocious and it showed up just how little range he has: any scene where he was meant to be angry or hurt was just amateurish - the scene where he begs to be put on the murder enquiry at the beginning of episode two is one of the worst pieces of bad acting I've seen in years. Though to be fair, Steve Robertson was also pitiful in the first two episodes, overacting his little heart out, although unlike Spall he did improve slightly by the final episode. The only cast members who really came out well were Mel Raido, who made a lot out of an underwritten part, and Kelly Reilley, who's been better but still managed to effortlessly outshine her leading man.

"Security - release the badgers."

[–] blame_thatcher_2003-2011 15 years ago

He's annoying in Scouting Book for Boys too, with a lousy attempt at a northern accent of some description to boot.

"I have taught you to love chickens, to love their flesh, their voice." (§ .¬)

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] TrevorAclea 15 years ago

I can almost hear Prince Charles summing it up: "It really is Spalling."

Bizarre performance lowlights: the moment where his sing-song delivery of the line "Going to the bingo, coming from the bingo" threatens to turn into Little Britain's Dennis Waterman (about as close as his performance ever gets to The Sweeney) and the final shot where he makes an accusatory turn to face the camera/viewer while walking purposefully away and looking like nothing so much as someone who's just found out his best friend at big boy's school hates his guts and doesn't care who knows it.

And I thought things could only improve after his performance in The Lion in Winter.

"Security - release the badgers."