'My head span when I was asked to portray the PM'

Bafta-winning star Adeel Akhtar tells Ellie Harrison about his latest role in 'Showtrial', his upcoming stint as UK leader and how the reaction to the August riots showed true patriotism

- Ellie Harrison

When Adeel Akhtar began his career in the early 2000s, he didn't see a lot of people like him on TV. "Tiny little Asian men with tired faces – there weren’t many of us out there,” says the actor, who at 5ft 6in matches the height of Tom Cruise. “But I’m doing a spot of work now, and people are hiring me, and asking my opinion.”

“Spot of work” is an understatement. Over the years, the 44year-old has developed a reputation as one of those actors who is the standout in everything they do; “scene-stealer” is the professional term. His moniker in the biz is literally “Ideal Actor”, a play on his name that speaks to how highly regarded Akhtar is in the industry, renowned for bruising, humane and endlessly intriguing performances.

His breakthrough arrived in 2010 with Chris Morris’s fearless satire Four Lions, in which he played a bumbling Muslim extremist who manages to blow himself up in a field of sheep. In 2017, he became the first non-white actor to win a Lead Actor TV Bafta for his role as the raging patriarch in the honour killing drama Murdered By My Father. He bagged another in 2023 for his part as a messed-up widower in Sherwood. His scene of heinous violence was arguably the most shocking moment of British drama in the whole year.

Today, we meet in his publicist’s offices in Fitzrovia, on the first cold snap of the year. He’s cosy in a soft black hoodie and fuzzy beard, as he tells me how he used to wish he looked different. Mainly, a little less sleepy. “I remember thinking that maybe, if I looked a bit more awake, then I’d be the type of actor I thought I should be,” he says. “But over the years, I’ve reached this level of self-acceptance.” He’s described as “hangdog” in almost every interview, with one journalist even going so far as to compare him to a basset hound. “They did,” he says, chuckling on hearing it again. “They specified what breed of dog.”