Lenny Rush, the 17-year-old Bafta winner, stars as Val in the new BBC sitcom The Reluctant Vampire, adapted from Eric Morecambe's 1980s children's books by the writers behind Alan Partridge. The show, which Rush likens to The Naked Gun and Airplane!, airs on BBC One on Sunday 4 October at 6.40pm.
Rush revealed that the title role was written specifically for him, thanks to executive producer Shane Allen, who had previously worked with Rush on Am I Being Unreasonable?. "So yes, the scripts were written with me in mind," Rush said. "I'm so happy they were so good. I'd have felt awful if they said 'We've written this for you' and …" he trailed off, pulling a face of exquisite pained courtesy.
A Comic Tradition and a Family Show for Everyone
The series follows Val, a young vampire who lacks the typical skills of his bloodsucking household—his teeth aren't pointy, he hates the taste of blood, and it turns out he's not a vampire at all but a rogue human. Written by Neil and Rob Gibbons, the show blends slapstick with genuine pathos, featuring actors like Tom Davis as a boisterous vampire and Sian Clifford as Val's mother.
Rush emphasized the show's broad appeal: "In my opinion, sometimes things are labelled as a family show but they're aimed at kids. I really do get the feeling that The Reluctant Vampire is for everyone." He noted that Davis's big character and voice "can't not attract a younger audience, but the lines are genuinely funny."
From Child Star to Comedy Inspiration
Rush, who started acting at age seven in CBeebies' Our Family, has been a TV fixture for years. His breakthrough came with Am I Being Unreasonable?, for which he won a Bafta at 14 for best male performance in a comedy, and he was nominated again this year. He also appears in the latest season of Slow Horses as a foul-mouthed, ancient-beyond-his-years kid.
His comedic influences include Mr Bean, Alan Partridge, and Monty Python, as well as the British version of The Office, which he knows episode by episode. Of David Brent, his inspiration, Rush offered a kind reading: "You think: 'What an idiot.' Then you think: 'What a not very nice man.' Then you get to the end of series two, and there's a really big element of pity. He's just a man! Trying to find his way! He just wants to be part of the gang. It's actually a tragedy."
Visibility, School, and Staying Grounded
Rush, who has a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, never intended for his condition to be a talking point. But the impact of his visibility surprised him. "When Am I Being Unreasonable? came out, I started to get messages from mums, saying: 'My little boy's got a disability or a form of dwarfism, he's struggling a bit at the moment at school. But he's seeing you on telly and it's giving him confidence.' It's so mad that I can be doing what I love and making people feel like that."
He sees the unvampiric vampire as a metaphor for belonging. "Going to school, trying to fit in, trying to impress, failing miserably. I think that's why it's so relatable. Even though it's about vampires. Or you could see it as someone trying to find their place in society: 'Am I doing this right? Am I good enough?'"
Despite his busy career, Rush kept attending school, with his mother focused on his attendance. "My mum took school really seriously—not even necessarily, to be honest, the education side; she just found it very important for me to be seeing my mates. So I'd be on the PlayStation, and go: 'I'm working with Gary Oldman,' and they wouldn't even look up from the game."
Beyond Comedy and Into New Roles
After Am I Being Unreasonable?, Rush landed two episodes of Doctor Who, playing Morris Gibbons, a 13-year-old genius. He admitted, "I've not told Russell T Davies this, but I never watched Doctor Who. I knew what it was! I knew it was an honour to get asked."
Rush is wary of being pigeonholed as a comic actor. "I never saw myself as a comedian or a comic actor. And as much as I love comedy, I don't want that to stick as my thing." His next role is Dobby in the Harry Potter series, a casting against type. He said only: "It's pretty incredible—I feel so lucky, it's insane."
Reflecting on the ensemble chemistry in The Reluctant Vampire, Rush said, "I never felt like anyone was learning from me. I felt like I was learning from them." He recalled advice from Tom Davis: "If you're doing a comedy, you want to make people laugh at home, so your goal in that scene is to make your co-star laugh. Try and get them to break."
