'Des' Star Daniel Mays on Bringing a Real Person to Life, Working with David Tennant and More
Even if the name doesn’t ring a bell, British film and telly fans are sure to be familiar with the work of Daniel Mays. Since graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2000, this Essex-born actor has spent the last two decades bringing a wide variety of interesting and authentic characters to the screen.
Mays' talents have been showcased in Oscar-nominated films like Vera Drake and Atonement, as well as in memorable turns as men on the wrong side of the law in the BBC’s hit cop drama Line of Duty and Netflix’s White Lines. He’s also taken on the oh-so-British feel-good genre in films like Swimming with Men and Fisherman’s Friends which I reviewed just last month. And if sci-fi and fantasy is your cup of tea, you may have seen Mays’ guest appearance on Doctor Who or his supporting role in the Amazon Prime mini-series Good Omens.
Recently I had the amazing good fortune to speak with Daniel (or Danny, as just about everyone seems to call him) about one of his newest projects, Des. The three-part miniseries, which received critical acclaim and huge viewer numbers in the UK in September, is now available on the Sundance Now streaming service. Mays co-stars with David Tennant in his role as notorious Scottish serial killer, Dennis Nilsen, who murdered more than a dozen young men in London in the late ’70s and early '80s. In it, he portrays DCI Peter Jay, the police officer at the helm of the grueling investigation to identify Nilsen’s victims and provide justice for them and their families.
