He was the first disabled actor to play Richard III at the RSC. As he appears as Shardlake, the star recalls the parts that made him – and explains why this latest character is like the Lone Ranger
Arthur Hughes wants to go on adventures. “When I was little,” he says, “I loved films. I loved Jurassic Park. I loved Back to the Future. I loved things I probably wasn’t supposed to watch, like Predator. And then of course I loved all the Disney classics. To go to a world that isn’t your own is so exciting. I wanted to tell stories like that.”
It was this desire that saw him first take to the stage in school plays, and then to eschew university in favour of drama school – although his parents persuaded him to apply to both, just in case. “There was nothing else I wanted to do,” he says. The gamble paid off as he has landed some huge roles – including being the first disabled actor to play Richard III at the RSC, and co-starring in the BBC drama Then Barbara Met Alan, the first primetime drama about the disability rights movement. To hear him tell it, his whole career has been one big thrill.
