‘I’ve played a lot of sneery bastards’: Roger Allam on bad singing, big paydays and Elgar’s level of ‘gitacity’

<p>He launched a thousand memes as the beleaguered Tory MP in The Thick of It, and starred in the original production of Les Misérables. Now the actor is making not-so-sweet music in the Alan Bennett-scripted film The Choral. But there are plenty of things he draws the line at …</p><p>A key plot point of The Choral revolves around Roger Allam singing badly. This is the man who originated the role of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSRtuWHO0gw">Javert in Les Misérables</a> back in 1985, who was Olivier-nominated for his performance in <a href="https://officiallondontheatre.com/olivier-awards/winners/olivier-winners-1994/">Cy Coleman’s musical City of Angels</a> and who once contemplated a career as an opera singer.</p><p>Talk me through that, I say: the bad singing. We’re at his home in southwest London. He’s very busy, filming, but a small window of time was found to meet – did I mind coming to his house? No, of course I didn’t, and here I am on a blustery Monday morning, perched on a chair next to him, sat in the corner on the sofa in a comfortable but anonymous front room looking on to a leafy street.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/31/ive-played-a-lot-of-sneery-bastards-roger-allam-on-bad-singing-big-paydays-and-elgars-level-of-gitacity">Continue reading...</a>