Nigel Lindsay makes belligerence funny without making it harmless. His Barry in Four Lions is the clearest reason to seek him out: an unreasonable man played with enough conviction to make a joke feel uncomfortable.
Fi1m perspective
In Four Lions (2010), Nigel Lindsay's Barry takes disagreement as a personal insult. Lindsay makes that belligerence funny by giving it complete conviction; this is a man who cannot allow the possibility that somebody else has a point. We laughed at Barry, then felt uneasy about the anger Lindsay brings to even a disagreement. It is a sharply judged performance, with no attempt to make the character agreeable. Lindsay trusts us to keep watching someone we would rather not meet.
The film was his screen breakthrough, following a stage career that began in the early 1990s. More film and television work followed, but theatre continued, including the title role in Shrek the Musical (2011). His work in straight plays as well as musicals makes it unhelpful to file him away simply as the belligerent supporting man. He also returned to screen comedy as Jason Tresswell in Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013), though Barry remains the part we would send someone to first.
In Chris Morris's Four Lions, the contrast with Riz Ahmed matters. Ahmed's Omar can recognise stupidity without being free of it himself, while Lindsay supplies a harsher comic energy. We are not simply waiting for a sensible character to put Barry right, which keeps their exchanges from becoming too comfortable. The force of Lindsay's playing helps Morris keep reminding us that incompetence does not make these men harmless. Our reservation is with the film's middle, where jokes recur after they have made their point, rather than with Lindsay's willingness to be disagreeable.
Later television parts include Sir Robert Peel in Victoria (2016) and Tom Kendricks in the surveillance thriller The Capture (2019). Those parts broaden a screen career often associated with intense or abrasive supporting characters. We would not prescribe more versions of Barry just because Lindsay is so convincing in the part; another script would still need to give that anger a reason to be there. Start with Four Lions, but do not expect pleasant company.
Biography
Nigel Lindsay is an English actor. He was born on 17 January 1969 in St John's Wood, London, and trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art after working as a financial analyst.
Lindsay is known for his extensive stage work, including roles in National Theatre productions such as Dealer's Choice (1995) and The Pillowman (2004), and the title role in Shrek the Musical (2011–2012) at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. He won the 2011 WhatsOnStage Award for Best Supporting Actor for Broken Glass at the Tricycle Theatre and received an Olivier Award nomination for Shrek the Musical.
On screen, he played Barry in the 2010 film Four Lions, for which he was nominated for Best British Comedy Performance in Film at the 2011 British Comedy Awards. His other credits include Sir Robert Peel in Victoria (2016–2019), roles in Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013), Safe (2018) and The Capture (2019–).
