Examples of awesome acting

[Sundae]

I am awful at identifying good acting. Given my non-tv status, I only make an effort when I know the actors involved. And my tastes run to comedy acting. That said, I think people denigrate comedy acting unfairly. It's real (if sometimes grotesque) and it requires precision timing and nuances as well as "selling" a character.

Me being me, I would offer Mark Gatiss playing Owen Fallowfield. A stand out in a series peopled with larger than life characters and prosthetics. Straight to camera and very chilling. He plays a mortician for whom some lines of propriety have become... blurred.
TLoG always skated close to the edge in comedy terms, but this performance was delivered so straight. It was Alan Bennett with a twist of formaldehyde.

Along the same lines I have to give Matthew Kelly props for his equally chilling Brian Wicklow (a serial killer) in In Cold Blood. Such a remove from his usual TV hosting persona.

Can't find clips for either, sorry.

[Carruthers]

Pete Postlethwaite in a scene from 'Brassed Off' (1996)



From Wikipedia

The film is about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure of their pit. The soundtrack for the film was provided by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and the plot is based on Grimethorpe's own struggles against pit closures. It is generally very positively received for its role in promoting brass bands and their music. Parts of the film make reference to the huge increase in suicides that resulted from the end of the coal industry in Britain, and the struggle to retain hope in the circumstances.