Adrian Dunbar was born and brought up in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, before attending Guildhall School Of Music & Drama in London. His stage credits include the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Court, while film work includes My Left Foot, Hear My Song and The Crying Game. On TV, he’s best known as Supt Ted Hastings in hit BBC cop-corruption thriller Line of Duty. This week, Dunbar directs a play at Happy Days, the annual Samuel Beckett festival in his home town of Enniskillen.
How did you get involved with the Beckett festival?
Curator Seán Doran found himself in Enniskillen and realised it was a beautiful town, located between two lakes, with incredible literary connections. Not only did Wilde and Beckett go to school here, but Brian Friel was born up the road, Seamus Heaney not too far away, same with Patrick Kavanagh, WB Yeats grew up in Sligo… It’s the epicentre of an amazing concentration of writing talent. Seán thought it would be wonderful place to hold a festival. Local people put him on to me and I was enthusiastic from the get-go.
The inaugural festival was in 2012. How has it evolved?
It got off to a cracking start because we got decent funding and brought in powerful international artists. People were fascinated to see where Beckett spent his formative years. These landscapes influenced him hugely. He spent a lot of time swimming in the lakes and excelled at sport here.
Beckett was actually quite a cricketer, wasn’t he?
Yes, he’s the only Nobel laureate to appear in Wisden. But not the only Irishman to be great at cricket, as Eoin Morgan proved last week.
Has the festival been good for the town?
It’s a two-way street: Enniskillen has done well out of visitors and locals have had their hometown opened up to them. We don’t have many purpose-built venues, so Seán puts on events in unusual spaces. You may never have seen inside the Methodist church, but during the festival, you can go in and listen to a fabulous string quartet play Schubert, Beckett’s favourite composer. It’s broken down barriers.
Coming back must be a trip down memory lane?
Very much so. It also saves me explaining why I’m here. People go: “Back for the festival?” I say “Yep”, and that bit’s done. It saves 20 minutes of small talk. As a kid, I remember being inspired by touring companies coming here to put on plays and meeting the actors around town. That’s when I realised this could be a profession. That point of contact for young creative people in any town is really important. They might experience something life-changing. The arts don’t care what your background is. They belong to everyone.
Tell us about the show you’re directing at this year’s festival.
It’s his late play Ohio Impromptu, one of only two pieces Beckett ever wrote on request. It’s short, at only 12 minutes, but utterly mesmeric. Our production is on Devenish Island, so the audience take a boat to it, get off, enter a dark room, the lights come up and these two very particular-looking figures are there waiting. The story is partly set on the Isle of Swans [in the middle of the Seine in Paris] and we’re on an island with swans, so there’s that direct connection. It has a strange effect on people. When they get back on the boat, they’re energised. People often say Beckett is difficult or bleak, but engaging with it is the most life-affirming, uplifting thing. It’s his use of language. The music of the words works on your subconscious. You end up deeply moved but don’t know why. That’s where the magic lies.
Would you like to do more directing?
The variety of switching disciplines is interesting, but I have to be careful. When something like Line of Duty happens, your profile is such that you’re asked to do different things. I’m careful not to spread myself too thinly or it just goes mad.
Were you as relieved as the rest of us that Hastings wasn’t unmasked as corrupt kingpin “H” in Line of Duty’s latest series?
Absolutely. Someone came up to me the other day and said: “You don’t realise how invested I was in you.” It’s extraordinary. But people had better watch out – it’s written by Jed Mercurio, so anything could happen. He’s killed off all kinds of Bafta-winners! At a time when people are finding it difficult to put their trust in anything, they thought: “If Ted’s corrupt, that’s the end.” People on Twitter were saying Ted should go in and sort out Brexit. He represents clarity, and there’s comfort in that. I’ll have to write The Thoughts of Chairman Ted. A little blue book.
He’s beloved for his catchphrases. Does Jed Mercurio write them all or do you contribute?
Sometimes they’re in Jed’s scripts, other times I’ll chuck something in. If we’re doing a Q&A in Belfast, we might ask the audience to jot down a few suggestions. “I didn’t float up the Lagan in a bubble” came from one of those. “Now we’re sucking diesel” was mine. There was this crazy drinking game going around too. If I said “fella”, you had to take a gulp. If I said “mother of God”, down a whole pint. If I said “sucking diesel”, drink a whisky. By the end of the episode, there must have been blokes falling about all over the place.
You’ve formed a close friendship with castmates Vicky McClure and Martin Compston. Is it true you’re the resident cook?
That’s right. We stay in adjoining apartments during shooting and I’ll rustle up bowls of pasta or fry-ups. We learn our lines in Vicky’s flat. If there’s any late-night partying, that’s at Martin’s.
Are you one of those actors who don’t like watching themselves on screen?
I only tend to watch the bits I wasn’t in. I’ll watch Line of Duty to see what Martin and Vicky got up to while I was stuck at the AC-12 office.
Do you have any dream roles you’d like to play?
I’d love to do something funny. Our work often deals with tough subjects. You do your research and it can be quite dark. So after all these years of drama, I’d like to go to work someday with the sole intention of making people laugh.
You turn 61 in a fortnight. How do your 60s feel?
I’m just enjoying still being able to walk up a flight of stairs, so I count my blessings. Although a bit of grunting has started when I get up from a chair.
What makes you happy when you’re not working?
I would say going to watch Arsenal, but that’s not the enjoyable experience it used to be. Gardening, cooking, going for a pint with my mates – just the ordinary stuff.
What’s up next for you?
I’m currently in Dublin shooting the second series of Blood, a TV drama by a great writer called Sophie Petzal. It airs on Virgin Media here in the Republic and did big numbers for Channel 5 in the UK, so that’s exciting. This autumn I’m making a documentary about Beckett for BBC Four. And in February, we start on Line of Duty series six. Let’s see what Mr Mercurio comes up with this time…
Happy Days: The Enniskillen international Beckett festival runs 25-28 July