Fangirl Friday: Rupert Graves

For this weeks Fangirl Friday (of which there are already a ton penciled in), I’d like to take a minute and focus on Sherlock’s own silver fox, Rupert Graves.

Graves, who plays DI Lestrade on the popular mystery series,  saw his break-out come in the 1985 Merchant/Ivory classic A Room with a View. He followed that up almost immediately in 1986 with the Merchant/Ivory film version of the novel Maurice, in which he starred as Alec Scudder opposite James Wilby’s titular character.

My eyes were first opened to Graves’ work when I started watching Sherlock; however, it turned out to be one of those “Where have I seen that guy?” moments. Looking back through his filmography, he’s worked across a wide variety of genres with roles in V for Vendetta, The White Queen  and The Madness of King George. He has been wildly active since first breaking into film in the 1980s, and shows no sign of slowing down.


In following his career with open eyes, Graves has proven to be incredibly versatile. He moves easily from rougher, more villainous characters, to the wounded and fragile Edward Crecy in The Crimson Field or the surprisingly vulnerable Lestrade. All one has to look at is the (albeit brief) interaction between Sherlock and Lestrade in “The Hounds of the Baskerville” or the interactions throughout the whole series between Lestrade and Molly (Louise Brealey).

While you’re waiting for the hotly awaited (but disappointingly still a year away) premiere of Sherlock, viewers in the United States can can next see Rupert Graves on the ABC drama The Family, which premieres on local ABC affiliates on March 3, 2016.