Russell Tovey on pride, sexual power and politics: ‘The Green party slogan – make hope normal again – is what we need’

Russell Tovey’s best characters often seem to have it all together, typically as a barrier to further interrogation. Take his recent projects: in surreal BBC sitcom Juice, Tovey plays Guy, a buttoned-up therapist with a seemingly perfect life, hobbled by an aversion to recklessness. Then there’s the closeted Andrew Waters in award-winning American indie film Plainclothes, a well-respected married man of faith who secretly cruises New York shopping mall toilets. Even in the forthcoming Doctor Who spin-off, The War Between the Land and the Sea, Tovey’s character, Barclay, is an ordinary office clerk who is swept up into a planet-saving mission while trying to keep his family from falling apart. In each performance, Tovey anchors his characters with a beguiling mix of strength, empathy and vulnerability.

In interviews, the immaculately put together Tovey, 44, often seems similarly well-adjusted, speaking eloquently about his acting, his passion for art (he co-hosts the successful podcast Talk Art and has co-written three books on the subject) and his advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community. Flaws, if there are any, are carefully stage-managed.

So it’s mildly exciting to hear that ahead of our meeting in a central London restaurant, sequestered away in a maze-like confluence of newly constructed buildings, Tovey is apparently completely lost. A small dent in the armour, perhaps? While his PR goes outside to call him, I make a note of this slip-up in my phone. Minutes later, Tovey appears, smart-casual in a navy jumper, light blue shirt and intriguingly patterned trousers. His salt and pepper hair is cropped short and his matching facial topiary has been trimmed into a rakish goatee.

View image in fullscreen Tovey in Doctor Who spin-off The War Between The Land And The Sea. Photograph: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Alistair Heap

“I wasn’t lost,” he says, reading my phone – which is, to my horror, open right in front of him. The sprawling venue, he explains, has two entrances. Ah. I start amending the note.