The Bureau: Actor, Henry Lloyd-Hughes

Best known for his performances in Killing Eve, The English Game, Indian Summers, and The Inbetweeners, Henry Lloyd-Hughes has become a familiar presence on our screens, establishing himself as an actor of considerable talent. As well as acting, Henry is a lover of cricket and clothes, indulging the latter passion recently when he commissioned a suit from our made-to-measure service. We visited his home shortly before lockdown to photograph him in his brown herringbone two-piece, and to ask him a few questions about his life and work.

Photography by Isaac Marley-Morgan.

Tell us about how you first came to acting.

School plays and sketch writing to entertain myself and my mates. I was lucky enough to get to study GCSE drama at school, it was the first subject I studied where I felt I might have some advantage!

What would be a dream role for you?

I can think of only two that I’ve seen that I wished I could build a time machine and it be me instead. Ralph Fiennes in The Grand Budapest Hotel and Jean Dujardin in The Artist.

Where does your interest in clothes originate from?

Clothes for me have always been the easiest way of transforming my mood. They are my daily antidepressant. The daily task of dressing could feel cumbersome, but within it is an opportunity to reinvent yourself, to dress for the person you want to be that day. My teenage years were spent experimenting with so many different looks, I’m a little less extreme now, but I’m still having fun.

You have a keen interest in vintage cricket clothing, and you’ve just starred in the football-centric period piece The English Game for Netflix. What style lessons can we all learn from sports kits of yore?

Well, kit back then wasn’t designed to show a sponsor’s logo! The costumes for The English Game were beautifully made by Pam Downe, including specially period appropriate woven jersey fabric. I’ve taken on the mantle of my family business N.E.Blake&Co. to produce our own classic cricket kit, so The English Game was very much playing at home for me sartorially!

When you’re playing a role, how important is the character’s wardrobe for immersing yourself in the part? Have there been any outfits you’ve particularly enjoyed wearing onscreen? Or particularly hated? 

All the bits are connected, so you can't get a handle on the world of the piece until you see and feel your own costume, as well as everyone else's costumes for that matter. How you walk and move is so affected by the shoes, and how the costume feels, and these details are not always on the page, so it's revelatory meeting a costume designer and seeing the vision come to life. 

We’ve all found ourselves with a lot of time on our hands. Any recommendations for film, TV or books? 

I wish I had more time on my hands, I’ve always got a huge pile of unread books by my bed, and lists of films and TV shows I need to watch, but my two small children keep my content consumption rationed! I’ve put some of these recommendations on Instagram already; they're not any kind of best-of, just recent-ish things that really left an impression on me.

10 films I love that you should see:

1. Mustang (2015)
2. Victoria (2015)
3. Let The Right One In (2008)
4. The Great Beauty (2013)
5. Little White Lies (2010)
6. Punch Drunk Love (2002)
7. The Artist (2011)
8. Toni Erdmann (2016)
9. The Fall (2006)
10. Rachel Getting Married (2008)

10 TV shows I love that you should see:

1. Babylon Berlin
2. High Maintenance
3. Atlanta
4. Inside No 9
5. Him + Her
6. Easy
7. Chernobyl
8. Grandma’s House
9. Ladhood
10. People Just Do Nothing

Lastly, any upcoming projects we should be looking out for? I hear you’re playing a certain famed detective?

Yes I’ve almost finished filming a series for Netflix called The Irregulars where I play Sherlock Holmes. It’s a supernatural crime drama about a gang of kids in a dystopian London solving crimes, and it should be out by the end of 2020. I look forward to adding my name to the illustrious list of actors that have played the role.