If you’ve been sleeping on James Norton, now’s the time to wake up. The British actor has been quietly building one of the most impressive CVs in television, and yet somehow he still doesn’t get half the credit he deserves.
Most people know him as the morally complicated vicar Sidney Chambers in Grantchester, the role that first put him on the map back in 2014. But what came after? That’s where it gets interesting.
Viewers who caught him in Happy Valley won’t need convincing. His portrayal of Tommy Lee Royce, a calculating and terrifying ex-convict, drew comparisons to the very best of British crime drama. One fan on Reddit called it “one of the most chilling performances in a BBC drama in years,” and honestly, it’s hard to argue.
But beyond the obvious hits, there’s a whole back catalogue worth exploring. His work in McMafia on BBC One sees him play Alex Godman, a London-raised Russian trying to stay clean while his family’s criminal empire drags him back in. It’s slick, tense, and Norton carries every scene he’s in.
Then there’s Giri/Haji, a BBC Two and Netflix co-production that blends Japanese and British crime in a way that shouldn’t work as well as it does. Norton plays a reckless British gangster, and he clearly had the time of his life doing it.
For something completely different, his 2020 film Nowhere Special is a quiet, devastating drama about a terminally ill window cleaner trying to find adoptive parents for his young son. It barely got a theatrical release, which is a genuine shame. Critics who saw it rated it among the best British films of that year.
His recent ITV series Mr Bates vs The Post Office also reminded audiences just how much range he has, playing the real-life campaigner Alan Bates with enormous dignity and restraint.
Seven underrated dramas from one actor is quite the statement, but with Norton it genuinely holds up. The question now is whether mainstream audiences will finally catch on, or whether he’ll remain TV’s best-kept secret for a little while longer.
Leave a Reply