Rafe Spall as David Melmont in The English
(Picture: © Drama Republic/BBC/Amazon Studios)One day in the summer of 2020, sitting on a horse, bare chested and covered in sticky fake blood, Rafe Spall remembers thinking – just before the cameras rolled and he started barking like a dog – “Bloody hell this is mad”.
It created one of the most arresting scenes in a new series full of them. The English, which started on BBC Two last night, is a visceral, blood-soaked journey through the Old West of the late 19th century. And at the dark heart of the show is Spall’s David Melmont, a character who revels in ultra-violence as a means of taking what he wants.
