Richard Lumsden
Richard James Lumsden is an English actor, writer, composer and musician. He has made regular appearances on TV and film throughout his career. Notable series include Channel 4's Emmy-award winning Sugar Rush, Is It Legal?, Wonderful You and The Singapore Grip. He played Ray in Radio 4's long-running comedy Clare in the Community.
Career
Television
Lumsden's early television work includes Foggy in two series of First of the Summer Wine, Nutter in The Sharp End, Waterfront Beat, One Foot In The Grave, The Brittas Empire, Nelson's Column, Grace and Favour, Coogan's Run - Death Of A Salesman, and Hornblower.He played Colin in three series of Simon Nye's Is it Legal?, Henry in Wonderful You, Charles in All About Me, Roger in The House That Jack Built, as well as episodes of Dangerfield, People Like Us, Hardware, Love Soup, The Croydon Poisonings. Nathan in two series of Sugar Rush, and appearances in Party Animals, Suburban Shootout, Dis/connected, U Be Dead, and Free Agents. He appeared as Martin in series three of The Catherine Tate Show, and Arnold, an ex-boyfriend of Clare Bates in EastEnders.
Other tv shows include; Grownups, Summer In Transylvania, Garrow's Law, two series of The Impressions Show, three series of Life Of Riley, Vexed, Midsomer Murders, Rebecca Front's Little Cracker, By Any Means, All At Sea, as well as sixteen appearances as different characters in Holby City, Casualty and Doctors, all for the BBC.
More recent TV work includes Remember Me, Trollied, Father Brown, three series as Tony in BBC's Millie In Between, Crazyhead, Doc Martin, Shakespeare and Hathaway. In 2020, he played General Percival in ITV's WW2 drama The Singapore Grip filmed in Malaysia, and in 2021, Taylor Lawson in series 25 of Silent Witness.
Film
Lumsden played Robert Ferrars in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility. He also appeared in The Avengers, Room To Rent, Silent Cry, Gospel of John, City Slacker, Morris A Life With Bells On and Ben Wheatley's Sightseers.In 2014, Lumsden starred in the independent British feature film Downhill, directed by James Rouse, a comedy about four friends attempting Alfred Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk. He played Ballested in Jan Vardoen's Heart Of Lightness, shot in Norway's Arctic Circle, and General Ismay in Joe Wright's Darkest Hour.
Most recently Lumsden starred as Paul in Brook Driver & Finn Bruce's debut feature film Swede Caroline'', alongside Jo Hartley & Celyn Jones, released on 19 April 2024.
Theatre
Notable theatre work includes: White Teeth, It's All Made Up, Cartwright in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya for director Robert Icke., and Mr Webb in David Cromer's internationally celebrated production of Our Town, both at the Almeida in London.He performed his own one–man musical play We Could Be Heroes at the Bridewell Theatre, 2004, later transferring to the Mill Theatre, Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford and the Arts Theatre, West End. His repertory theatre work at Stoke-on-Trent and Basingstoke includes the title roles in Hamlet and Master Harold & The Boys, and productions of As You Like It, King Lear, A Trip To Scarborough, Amadeus, Juno and the Paycock, Far From The Madding Crowd and Having A Ball. He played Roche in Rat in the Skull at Theater Exchange, Minneapolis USA, and John Thorpe in Northanger Abbey at Greenwich.
Writing
His writing work includes a seven-hour drama Wonderful You for ITV, in which he also starred, a one-man musical We Can Be Heroes which he performed in London, and five verse plays for BBC Radio 4: John Dodd Gets Taken for a Ride, A Good Place For Fishing which starred Anne Reid, and Man in the Moon, with Tom Courtenay and A Book By Lester Tricklebank. Readings of his play Skeletons have taken place at Soho Theatre and Leicester Square Theatre.His debut novel The Six Loves of Billy Binns, was published by Tinder Press in January 2019. He had previously adapted his story for Radio 4 under the same title, starring Tom Courtenay, which was broadcast in 2010.