Eddie Marsan: ‘I’m addicted to podcasts – The Rest Is History is my favourite’

Eddie Marsan was born in east London in 1968. Leaving school at 16, he studied theatre and landed his first screen roles in the early 1990s. He’s now renowned as a character actor, unforgettable in the films Vera Drake, Tyrannosaur and Happy-Go-Lucky. On TV, he starred in seven seasons of the Showtime series Ray Donovan, as well as Back to Black and The Bombing of Pan Am 103. Marsan, who lives in London, plays a Belfast bank clerk embroiled in a robbery in No Ordinary Heist, in cinemas from 27 March. He also stars in the Sky drama Prisoner from 30 April.

The Rest is History

I’m addicted to podcasts – The View from the Lane, The Rest is Politics, The Ancients – but this is my favourite. I never went to university and I’m always very aware of how my education has never been formal. For me this is like sitting around a fireplace with two really intelligent blokes and just shutting up and listening to them talk. They recently did a series on Jack the Ripper, which was fascinating for me because my ancestors lived in Whitechapel at that time, and it made you feel how terrifying that must have been.

Shifty

I thought Adam Curtis’s latest BBC series was amazing. He shows you the path we’ve taken in the UK over the last 40 years – neoliberalism, trickle-down economics, there’s no such thing as society – and how that’s led us to the shit we’re in now. But he does it without it being didactic. And it was so evocative about London in the 1980s and the 1990s without resorting to the usual stock images. The archive footage he dug up brought back so many memories for me. It’s a really powerful piece.

The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson

I have a fascination with American history and politics, and this book is about Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 and the build-up to the civil war. There are so many similarities to what’s happening in America now, with racism, the culture wars and the divisive nature of politics. It shows the small, imperceptible steps that take you into war and the extremists who are pushing it along. I had a job where I had four hours of makeup and I sat and read it on my Kindle. It’s brilliantly written.

Veeraswamy, London W1

I love Veeraswamy. I went there recently with my mates from Bethnal Green to celebrate me getting an OBE, but half of them didn’t agree with me accepting it. We had a great debate over a Veeraswamy curry. It’s under threat at the moment because of a dispute with its landlord. But I think it’s great. It’s the oldest Indian restaurant in the UK and so much part of our history. We had a big spread of food. I forget what exactly we ate. All I remember is that we got half cut and had a good laugh.

Eagles of the Republic (2025, dir. Tarik Saleh)

This film reminds me of Armando Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin. It’s a great satire on authoritarianism and the absurdities of having to deal with an authoritarian system. Fares Fares plays an actor who is asked to make a propaganda movie about the president of Egypt, who’s a tiny little bloke with a bald head. Fares is really tall and handsome, and he has to play him. One of the ways that people deal with authoritarianism is to take the piss out of it. It’s a brilliant film with wonderful performances.

Going to see Spurs

Me and my friend, the actor and writer Richard Leaf, are both big Spurs fans and I often go to see them with him. We meet at Seven Sisters station and have a wonderfully deep, philosophical conversation on the walk to the stadium – Richard is a really sweet, kind man. Then, when the match starts, we become absolute neanderthals, like everyone else. Not abusive or rude, but a healthy dose of tribalism. We’re having a really terrible season at the moment, so it’s a bit painful to watch, but great fun.