First the day jobs, then classy British dramas

For most actors, a key step involves “day jobs.”
The lucky people are skilled waiters or carpenters or such, before rushing off to their next auditions. The others …?
“I am probably the worst magician in the world,” said Tom Durant Pritchard.
There he was, struggling to do balloons animals and magic and such at children’s parties. Fortunately, it worked out; at 37, he’s now had several good roles, two of them stirring up royals-watchers.
And now he steps into the male lead in “Miss Scarlet” (shown here) which starts its season at 8 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 12) on PBS, in front of the season-opener of “All Creatures Great and Small.”
The story began with Eliza Scarlet (Kate Phillips), the only female detective in 1882 London, working with a reluctant police official (Stuart Martin) dubbed “the Duke.” But Martin left after four seasons; now Pritchard arrives as Alexander Blake.
This new chief inspector is an imposing figure, physically – at 6-foot-4, Pritchard is a foot taller than Phillips – and mentally. He dislikes private detectives; he has sharp skills and a commanding presence. He also seems to transform when he’s with his daughter.
“Someone can be one person at work and totally different at home,” Pritchard said. That’s what makes Drake intriguing, “the idea of a man going about work in one way, but then being a single dad who shows great kindness.”
The change requires acting, which is what he prepared for, prior to detours.
In the past, Pritchard said, actors went from drama school to repertory theaters around the country. But many of those had folded by the time he’d graduated. He was a children’s entertainer and, he said, scrambled between “pantomimes and Shakespeare.”
The pantomimes are sort of a British descendant of vaudeville, with slapstick, sight gags and broad humor. The Shakespeare varied; “sometimes it might be in a pub, before eight people.”
Then the roles arrived, some with royal links. In one episode of “The Crown,” he was Billy Wallace, the rich kid who was forever rumored to marry Princess Margaret. In the final season of “The Windsors,” he was the adult Prince Harry, portrayed as a naive and immature chap.
“That was at a time when people (in England) still liked him,” Pritchard said. “So some people were pretty upset about it.”
Opinions are less divided about Edmund Kemper, the American convicted of killing eight females, often with decapitation and dismemberment. Pritchard played him in “The Head Hunter” (2016), getting a British Independent Film Festival nomination as best actor. That led to other roles, including the “This is Going to Hurt” mini-series and now “Miss Scarlet.”
The six-episode season means spending three months in Serbia, where the 19th century can be meticulously recreated. Pritchard stayed in “a lovely hotel in Belgrade,” where he could have long dinners with castmates, no longer having to worry about doing magic or making balloon animals.