Queer Welsh actors Callum Scott Howells and Luke Evans to star in emotional new BBC drama The Way
Luke Evans and Callum Scott Howells will star together in new BBC drama The Way. (Getty/David M. Benett)
Queer actors Callum Scott Howells and Luke Evans will star in The Way, a “powerful” new BBC drama about a civil uprising in a tiny industrial town in Wales.
Howells, 24, shattered hearts across the world with his devastating portrayal of Colin Morris-Jones in Channel 4’s 2021 AIDS drama It’s a Sin, and after a stint Cabaret on London’s West End, it’s confirmed that the actor will be back on screens very soon.
In addition to the recent announcement that Howells will soon be taking on the role of Holly Johnson in the Frankie Goes to Hollywood biopic Relax, Howells will also soon feature on a start-studded roster of actors in the BBC’s new three-part series The Way.
Howells will lead the cast as one member of the ordinary Driscoll family, who get tangled up in a political uprising that forces them to flee the place they’ve always called home.
Callum Scott Howells will be joined in the Driscoll family by Gavin and Stacey’s Steffan Rhodri, Keeping Faith’s Mali Harries, The Pact’s Sophie Melville, and legendary star of screen and stage Michael Sheen, who, alongside starring in the series, will also sit in the director’s chair.
LGBTQ+ actor and Clash of the Titans star Luke Evans will play Hogwood, a money-grabbing villain who will follow the Driscolls as they attempt to leave the country.
In a statement, the BBC described the series as an “ambitious”, “surprising” and “darkly humorous” series about the Driscoll family having to let go of the banality of their old lives.
Sheen described feeling “very lucky” to get stuck into the “extraordinary” drama, and praised the handful of “phenomenal actors” that will grace the set.
Howells, meanwhile, shared how “proud” he was to be taking part in the series and said that the cast were currently having the “best time” filming in Wales.
Speaking at the Wales Screen Summit earlier this week, Evans praised director Sheen for knowing how to get exactly “what he needs” from the cast.
“It’s Michael Sheen’s first directing job. You’d never think it,” Evans shared.
“You look at the picture board in your trailer and think, how has he managed to get all these people in this Welsh story? Because he’s Michael Sheen.
“As a director he’s great, because he’s an actor. He understands how to speak to an actor. He knows what he needs and how to get it out of you.”
There’s currently no certain release date for The Way, though the BBC has said audiences can expect to catch it on BBC One and iPlayer at some point in 2023.
