Nicholas Aaron

In Touching the Void (2003), Nicholas Aaron makes the climbing look like hard work, which is more useful here than making it look heroic. Playing Simon Yates opposite Brendan Mackey's Simpson, he keeps our attention on the effort the ascent requires. We found the reconstructions frightening because the physical strain is convincing, even with the climbers themselves present in interviews to tell the story. Aaron gives us little reason to step back from the mountain and admire the actor.

He began his acting career with Robert 'Popeye' Wynn in Band of Brothers (2001), followed by Yates two years later. Those early parts placed him in a war drama and a survival story based on real events. Aaron performed much of his own climbing for Touching the Void. There is no need to know that while watching, but it helps explain why the exertion looks so persuasive without becoming the whole point of the scene.

Kevin Macdonald gives that physical acting the right setting. Patrick Bill's production design makes the staged passages credible beside the interviews; the actors are not left to persuade us on their own. The film never conceals its reconstructions, and their success depends on a viewer accepting both ways of telling the story. Aaron and Mackey make that easy: after a while, we are no longer checking their scenes against the testimony.

His subsequent career has taken him through television guest roles in The Bill, Casualty and Outlander, and supporting film parts including Villain (2020). The English (2022), in which he plays Billy Myers, adds a Western to that work. These are reasons to look further, though our recommendation rests on the climbing film rather than the length of his credits. Start with Touching the Void, with a little patience for its slow opening.