Former Maidenhead student 'feels lucky’ to be in BBC One historical drama

A Redroofs Theatre school alum ‘feels lucky’ to appear as a series regular in the BBC One drama King and Conqueror.

Calum Sivyer plays Norman soldier Tallifer, alongside James Norton and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in the show, now streaming on BBC iPlayer and Paramount+.

The 28-year-old said getting the role in the historical drama series recounting the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England was ‘wonderful’.

“For actors, you grind away for so many years… you're doing everything you can because you love this craft so much,” he told the Advertiser.

“To get noticed and to be in a show, especially one with such big names attached and a script that you believe in, sometimes it can feel like an impossibility.

“I don’t know what I did to get this role, but I feel lucky. I'm happy to have been on board.”

Calum is an actor, musician, and cabaret performer from Eton Wick, whose first role came aged eight as the Mayor of Munchkin City in The Wizard of Oz at Theatre Royal Windsor.

He was ‘artistically inclined from a very young age’ and a ‘live wire’ who channelled his energy into dancing, acting and music while attending Redroofs Theatre School, in Bath Road, for seven years.

“My dad is obsessed with music, film and theatre, and my mother’s a bit of an ageing hippie, so I was this perfect storm of theatre and film and hippy-dippyness,” he said.

“I just became obsessed with it – jazz, tap, ballet, modern and dancing – I fell in love with it, and it all came together, and I knew what I wanted to do.”

Before being cast as Tallifer, Calum worked at the Windmill Theatre in Soho and is part of a roaming clown trio through his immersive theatre company, ‘The Stupid English Boys’.

An audition for a ‘joyous, morale-boosting jongleur’ who brings ‘levity and lightness’ to the army camp by singing songs, reciting poetry or performing tricks such as juggling swords felt like a ‘logical career step’ for Calum.

“I work in cabarets where I go on stage dressed in various weird costumes, do comedy and funny songs – a lot of clowning – so there’s that element to the character that fits in from my everyday life,” he said.

“It tied in well with everything I do professionally – a character [written] for me.”

Calum’s fascination with British folk music led him to learn the banjo, guitar, mandolin, double bass and harmonica in his younger years, which boded well when he was handed a medieval stringed instrument called the ‘rebec’ on his first day on set.

“They just handed me this random instrument I've never played in my entire life and had to learn to play it pretty quickly,” he said. “I think I did a pretty good job.”

The minstrel, Taillefer of Normandy, is a real historical figure, and offers ‘light-hearted jesting’ against a backdrop of betrayal, war, death and greed in the show, said Calum.

There is a subtle but implied romance with fellow Norman soldier Fitzosbern, and viewers will see the ‘transformative power of what war does to people’ through his character arc, he added.

Calum filmed in Iceland from April to July last year, and his first scene was an emotional confrontation opposite Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, playing William, Duke of Normandy, which was an ‘intimidating’ prospect.

“Rather than greeting me warmly and shaking my hand, he was in character and just looked at me with an intensity that I knew he was trying to set the tone and get me into character,” he said.

“It helped me, that tone setting that he initiated, and it was one of the scenes I’m most proud of.

“After that, we had a hug, and it was really sweet.

“Everyone on set was lovely, though I was a little bit starstruck.”

The penultimate episode, ‘Cost of War’, airs on BBC One on Sunday after 9pm.