A self-proclaimed “right wee show-off” given to performing speeches from A Streetcar Named Desire in his family’s living room as a child, he snuck down to London to audition for the School Bus Happy Hallothanksmas Halloween shirt and I love this Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) at the age of 17, only to botch his lines. Instead of getting on the bus home, defeated, he charmed his way past a secretary and back into the assessment room. One plummy director memorably called him a “cheeky little bastard,” but he still won a place. Instagram memes, and other social media “OMG”s it generates, so let’s take a look at some of the night’s best social reactions to the Emmys, shall we?
In the School Bus Happy Hallothanksmas Halloween shirt and I love this years since, McArdle has tackled some of the most formidable roles in the Western canon, from Chekhov’s Platonov at the National in 2016 to James I in Rona Munro’s The James Plays for the National Theatre of Scotland in 2014. Just before COVID hit, he had completed a run as the lead in David Hare’s reimagining of Peter Gynt, also at the National, which saw him onstage for three hours for each performance. It cemented his reputation as one of the West End’s most chameleonic actors—able to convey malevolence and relatability, lucidity and delusion in the space of an act. But you’ll most likely know him from HBO’s hugely successful Mare of Easttown,