Amid melancholy, a character actor soars

Defying the wise counsel of his career advisors, Adrian Scarborough became an actor – and a busy one.
He had subservient roles – the valet in “Blunt Talk,” butler in “Upstairs Downstairs,” chauffeur in “Don Juan in Soho.” He had bigger ones – Villanelle’s handler in “Killing Eve,” the iffy doctor in “Sanditon.” He played more doctors, plus vicars, a goblin, a bunny, a mole and Winston Churchill.
It’s been an enviable career, sort of. “You have these great character roles,”said Scarborough, 55, “but only for two or three days …. You parachute in, do a few scenes and don’t really get to meet people.”
Then came “The Chelsea Detective” (shown here). It’s a chance to dig into a person and place he finds fascinating.
The show’s second season has four movie-length (90-minute) stories on consecutive Mondays, beginning Aug. 28. That’s on Acorn (www.acorn.tv), one of the streaming services that becomes especially important during the strikes.
What viewers will find is Max Arnold, a police detective who lives on a houseboat in Chelsea, an upscale chunk of London. “The boat is sort of a metaphor,” Scarborough said. “He’s a little island of good, surrounded by decadence.”
He can isolate there, studying his cases … or just brooding. “ ‘Melancholic’ and ‘contemplative’ are two very good words to describe him,” Scarborough said.
Interestingly, those words can also describe the actor.
“I’m one of those people whose life is a celebration of melancholy,” Scarborough said. “When I have to be terribly jolly,… I feel less comfortable.”
His own discomfort goes back to his childhood, when he wasn’t good at school or sports or fitting in. He was bullied, partly because of his size — he’s now 5-foot-4 — or his red hair.
(The hair comes from both sides of his family, for reasons that are unclear. “There were Vikings involved, I would guess.”)
As a teen, Scarborough finally found others who shared his interests. He pondered being a dancer, then switched to acting. He won an award at Old Vic Theatre School and later won the top award in British theater (an Olivier) – twice.
Along with that were all those flashy little roles – and then the big “Chelsea Detective” one.
“When I saw that he cycles all around town, I was delighted,” Scarborough said. “I have this fold-up bike that I take everywhere.”
He’s lived in the London area with his wife (Rose Blackshaw) and kids (now grown) for 33 years, but hadn’t really been to Chelsea. Now he talks about maybe buying a small flat and walking to work.
Max comes close to this. He bikes to work, then returns to that boat, where a small space is dominated by a large “crime board,” with his current case.
That’s something that real-life police detectives told him, Scarborough said. “The hardest part is going between the personal and the professional.”
For Max, that separation comes simply by pulling a screen over the crime board. Then he’s ready to greet the rare visitor – maybe his wife (they’re separated and she has the flat) or his aunt.
At work, he gets along with his assistants. The show has switched sergeants – Sonita Henry (shown here, right) the first year, Vanessa Emme, the second – with some things in common: Both women are taller than Max; both are better at chasing crooks. “I love that,” Scarborough said. “At least he tries.”
Max’s skill is in deduction – slowed by the fact that he’s dyslexic. That’s something Scarborough empathizes with – from his own school troubles and the fact that his wife is dyslexic.
“By any means, the most intelligent person I’ve ever known,” he said. “She spent a lot of her time covering it up.”
She found ways to work around dyslexia – “computers are helpful nowadays” – and studied it, getting a Masters degree. She’s become the sort of problem-solver that Max Arnold would admire.