Jeremy Swift makes supporting parts worth attending to without upsetting the balance of an ensemble. We value the understated warmth of his Leslie Higgins in Ted Lasso, though the succession of servants and functionaries risks narrowing what he is asked to do.
Fi1m perspective
In Ted Lasso (2020), Jeremy Swift helps keep a supporting cast from looking as though everyone is waiting for permission to be funny. His Leslie Higgins belongs in the conversation even when the joke belongs elsewhere. We rate that contribution in a sports comedy with an uneven supply of laughs and some laboured cultural clashes. We were grateful for Higgins when Ted’s cheerfulness began to wear. Swift makes the company feel worth staying with without requiring another punchline to justify his presence.
Arthur in Robert Altman’s Gosford Park (2001) and Mr Bumble in Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist (2005) sit within a career repeatedly drawn towards servants and functionaries. Septimus Spratt in Downton Abbey, played from 2013 to 2015, made him more widely recognised. Higgins then brought his largest international audience. The move from period ensembles to this gentle sports comedy makes sense: Swift’s understated way of supporting other actors is useful in both.
Ted Lasso puts that steadiness alongside more pointed comic performances. Hannah Waddingham makes Rebecca Welton’s withheld responses count, while Brett Goldstein gives Roy Kent a bluntness worth waiting for. Swift helps those different approaches sit together, which matters when Jason Sudeikis’s buoyancy threatens to become tiring. He is also a skilled jazz musician, and the programme gives Higgins the chance to perform on screen. It is a welcome detail in a supporting part: the man has something to do beyond helping somebody else through a scene.
None of this makes Ted Lasso consistently funny, and Swift cannot put a sharper joke where the writing has supplied a weaker one. His achievement is smaller and worth valuing: the supporting company remains engaging through the uneven stretches. We would like to see him asked for something beyond another mild-mannered functionary, however reliably he can supply one. Start with Higgins, but allow for a programme whose warmth sometimes has to do the work of its comedy.
Biography
Jeremy Swift is an English actor. He was born on 27 June 1960 in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham. He trained at the Guildford School of Acting from 1978 to 1981 and worked primarily in theatre during the 1980s, including with Deborah Warner's Kick Theatre company and the comedy performance-art group The People Show, as well as in television commercials. In the 1990s he appeared at the National Theatre in Phyllida Lloyd's production of What the Butler Saw, alongside David Tennant and Richard Wilson.
Swift is known for film roles including Arthur in Gosford Park (2001), Mr Bumble in Oliver Twist (2005), Gooding in Mary Poppins Returns (2018), and Vasilliy Bolodnikov in Jupiter Ascending (2015). On television he played Spratt in Downton Abbey (2010–2015), Glenvil Harris in Foyle's War (2013–2015), and Leslie Higgins in Ted Lasso (2020–). He received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2021 for the latter role. He is married to actress Mary Roscoe.
