As I was searching for images of cutie-pie British actor Linus Roache, I found an article about him titled, “You Either Love Him or You Really Love Him,” and I think that about sums it up, doesn’t it? Let’s run down his frock flick credits!
The Onedin Line (1976)
Roache played “Boy” in one episode, so it makes sense that I can’t find any pics of him in this BBC series about a Liverpool-based shipping family from 1860-88.
Here’s a pic of some of the stars.
Omnibus: Van Gogh (1990)
Omnibus is a British arts-focused documentary series. Roache played the famous Dutch artist in one episode.
Looking very shaggy and artsy. Is that mom or is he hanging with Queen Victoria?
Seaforth (1994)
A love story about two working-class Yorkshire people, set in 1943.
Her hair is VERY early ’90s | Starstock/Photoshot
Starstock/Photoshot
The Wings of the Dove (1997)
His best work, in my opinion, was in this Henry James adaptation set in 1910. He plays Merton, in love with Kate but forced to connect with Milly.
He’s handsome!
A good-hearted journalist!
Knows how to wear a summer suit!
And pinstripes!
Grrrr!
Pandaemonium (2000)
A truly terrible movie about various Romantic poets; Roache plays Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Yeah, it’s “Gob from Arrested Development as a magician” bad.
The Gathering Storm (2002)
He plays the real-life British Foreign Office official Ralph Wigram in this Churchill-focused just-pre-World-War-II biopic.
Looking dapper in white tie!
RFK (2002)
He starred as congressman and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy (1925-68) in this TV biopic.
He’s got the floppy hair for the role!
The Ten Commandments (2006)
Biblical shit. He plays Aaron, whoever that is.
Covered in mud, apparently. Sorry, this is not my area of expertise!
Before the Rains (2007)
Roache plays a British colonialist in 1930s India who gets up to no good.
Lines are crossed and women are taken advantage of.
He tries to come off as a family man!
Spoiler alert: he’s not.
Titanic (2012)
Roache plays the fictional “Earl of Manton” in this Julian Fellowes-authored TV miniseries about the famous sinking in 1912.
I’m guessing he’s an upper-crust snob?
With a daughter dying to break free?
Nice smoking jacket!
Love that stiff collar.
Going out in style!
The Making of a Lady (2012)
A TV adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1901 novel.
He’s an older marquess who marries a younger woman.
Looking very tweedy!
I love her polka dots! (Editor’s note: That outfit is recycled from 1974’s Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill!)
I’m guessing he goes off to World War I?
Vikings (2014-17) & Vikings: Athelstan’s Journal (2015)
Oh my god, how did I not know Roache had any role, let alone a leading one, in this travesty? He does! Or did! He played Ecbert of Wessex, which is just about the most eggbeardy name ever.
I’m guessing that outfit is bullshit.
Yep, eggbeardy!
Okay THIS is hot! Rowr!
A Call to Spy (2019)
A recent film about female spies in World War II Britain. Roache plays real-life Colonel Maurice Buckmaster, who led British spying in France.
I do love a man in uniform!
Ooo and vests!
Summer of Rockets (2019)
A 1950s-set film about Cold War spies.
Dapper!
© Little Island Productions – Photographer: Ludovic Robert
My Policeman (coming in 2022)
I can’t find any photos yet of Roache in this upcoming film about a gay policeman in 1950s England, in which he plays the older version of the lead character.
So here’s Harry Styles, who plays the younger.
Which is your favorite historical film or TV series featuring Linus Roache?
Not much notice is taken of Linus in the UK where he’s known as ‘son of Bill Roache’. Roache Snr has played Ken Barlow on TV soap Corrie for over sixty years He is the only cast member to have remained on the show since its beginning and holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s longest-serving soap opera actor. Linus looks exactly like his father at the same age.
Or, even more dismissively, “son of Ken Barlow”. I think that may have been all I knew about him.
Aaron was Moses’ brother. I adore Linus Roache since Wings of the Dove. He was one of the reasons that I watched Law & Order during his years on the show.
Just what I was going to say, Aaron was not only Moses’s brother but his translator as Moses didn’t know Hebrew, presumably he eventually learned, and Aaron was the founder of the Priestly caste which took care of the Ark as it requires cautious handling by experts.
Law and Order is where I know him from too.
ditto
I only knew of Linus in The Wings of The Dove (sigh) and the non FF Law and Order. Now thanks to you Kendra, I have much more to see! And by the way, aren’t his brown eyes incredibly deep?
Oh, wow, I saw “Pandaemonium” on TV once, and it’s all coming back to me. John Hannah plays William Wordsworth, who actually has to put thought into how to write a poem sometimes. He resents Coleridge, because Coleridge’s poetic philosophy is just do drugs and a poem will come out. Wordsworth somehow knows that Coleridge is drug-vinely inspired to write “Kubla Khan” one night, so he intentionally interrupts him to ruin his masterpiece. Then, years later Wordsworth’s sister, who had lovedColeridge but had an accident or illness that left her mute (I think, and maybe also in a wheelchair) is cured by reciting “Kubla Khan” much to her brother’s chagrin.
John Hannah could be a good MCM candidate.
Coco, I LOVE “…because Coleridge’s poetic philosophy is just do drugs and a poem will come out.”
I haven’t seen too many of his films, outside of ‘A Call to Spy’ which I found lackluster when you read the true stories of the women – in particular Noor Inayat Khan and Virginia Hall – featured in it; both of them had such fascinating lives and careers that they almost demand individual miniseries to cover them, instead of compressing them down (and fictionalizing a lot of details) into a single film.
I first became aware of him in 1994’s Priest, and then starting searching for him in other films. Scribbling4bread’s comment is very interesting. It does seem like he is more appreciated in the US, rather than the UK.
Ecbert was quite an important Saxon king, the grandfather of Alfred, but what he’s doing in Vikings I don’t know as historically his wars were with Mercia. And yes, it is an awful name.
The Titanic miniseries was just weird and kind of inaccurate! But I want everything Lady Manton wears! I’m torn!
Ah, The Wings of the Dove. Thought it was an absolutely charming movie. Glad to see it has FF’s stamp of approval as well.
As for Vikings… am I looking at a decorated… cuirasse? In the early 9th century? What in the fresh hell?
The Wings of the Dove is my favourite of his films. But I do want to see the others. And they should have included Nancy Wake in the spies series as well as made it longer.
He is dreamy.
The Making of a Lady is a decent enough flick, though he’s sadly in it far too little. He’s very swoon-worthy in it. But LOVE Wings of the Dove.
If Making of a Lady sticks to the book the Marquess is off to India not WWI.
I love him in everything and I have watched The Policeman. His role is pretty small with only his last scene challenging, but my favorite is the tv series Law and Order. We get to see him every week for a couple seasons in a leading role and he is wonderful! He’s the lead DIstrict Attorney and is on screen a good portion of each episode with a great ability to show his talents.
I think that polka dot Making of a Lady dress may have also been in the Granada Sherlock Holmes episode The Master Blackmailer!
It’s not really a frock flick but he was a whole lot of fun as a Charlie Manson-wannabe murderous cult leader in Mandy (2018)…he even managed to hold his own against Nicolas Cage at his most unhinged and that is really saying something.
Not historical, but amazing/weird costumes, is Chronicles of Riddick. Linus is the Purifier in that, and yes, deeply weird.