The reverberations from Richard Gadd’s Half Man, his drama about toxic masculinity, will continue for some time. Part of the noise has been the breakthrough performances by its young stars, particularly Mitchell Robertson as the youthful version of Jamie Bell’s Niall.
The 28-year-old Scot is outstanding as the nerdish character who is bullied and yet spellbound by his hyper-macho half-brother Ruben (played by the also excellent Stuart Campbell in the youth scenes, and later by Gadd). It is a carefully drawn role, one which he and Bell discussed: “We shot first, so Jamie then got to watch what we were shooting and honestly, he did all the work in the continuation of the character. But if he wins any awards, he has to share them with me.”
