Friendly, agreeable, diffident and winsome are all words you might associate with Mr. Freeman. His roles as ‘Tim’ from ‘The Office,’ ‘Watson’ alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in ‘Sherlock’ and ‘Bilbo Baggins’ in ‘The Hobbit’ have endeared him to the British public, allowing us to grow familiar and curiously attached to him and his characters, as if the margin between the two were indistinguishable. However, Freeman has always strived to remove himself from the notion that he is restricted to only one type of character: the pleasant, charming and vaguely awkward character he has projected in most of his roles to date is just one of many guises hidden in an expansive repertoire. This potential was noticed by Noah Hawley, the novelist and screenwriter acting as show-runner on the TV adaptation of Fargo, the 1996 cult-hit that garnered Best Original Screenplay Academy Award for the Coen brothers and a Best Actress for Frances McDormand.
Loosely based on the film, Freeman plays a brow-beaten insurance salesman called Lester Nygaard, who succumbs to the dark influence of murderous drifter Lorne Malvo, played by Billy Bob Thornton. The 10 part series is darkly atmospheric and rich with black humour, making it well worth the watch. If you want to catch Martin in this unique role, watch Channel 4 tonight at 9pm.
(Written by Paddy Crewe)