Since his breakout BBC role as the secret warlock Merlin, Colin Morgan has portrayed brooding detectives, tortured recluses, and whip-smart activists.
From the very start in 2008, when his titular role on the family drama explored a magical hero whose worth goes overlooked, giving a voice to the underdog is a thread that has followed him throughout his career – whether on stage, on screen, or as a now-debut novelist.
Over the past two decades, he’s made steady work playing singular characters that leave a stark impression.
There’s his turn as DS Thomas Anderson opposite Gillian Anderson in The Fall (one of many thrillers he has gone on to do), as a journalist not once but twice in Netflix shows The Crown and The Sandman, and as a unionist in historical drama The Gray House.
He’s on a break during another TV shoot in the South of France when we call, and I’m quick to ask about the socio-political undercurrent that has run alongside his characters from Merlin through to the present.
‘I’m very much drawn towards the outsiders, the unsung hero characters, the ones who go on a transformational journey that doesn’t necessarily need to be epic and blockbuster style, it can be very quiet and very internal,’ he says.
Hailing those roles ‘fascinating, challenging and irresistible’, he adds: ‘I read them, and I feel like I need to be the one to embody them. I need to get the [creators] trust for me to be the one to bring their story out into the world.’
On his debut novel, The Ballad of Ronan McCoy
The ‘unsung hero’ archetype is also the beating heart of his debut novel, The Ballad of Conan Roy, a coming-of-age tale about two friends, Brendan and the eponymous Ronan, who must find each other again after the latter suffers a life-altering brain injury.
After nurturing his love for writing in school, he started writing his novel on and off in 2018, inspired by the idea of exploring school-era friendships in all their fraught and hopeful complexity and eager to delve into the layers of grieving for people who haven’t left us.
(Fair warning: You may find yourself crying on the beach on holiday like me if you pick it up).
After handwriting the entire first draft in notebooks, he finally typed it up. ‘To hit that send button and invite somebody else to meet these people that I had lived with for so long, it was a very vulnerable,’ he says.
Since his main character is living with a severe brain injury, the actor made sure he could find out ‘as much about it as I possibly can’.
‘The Child Brain Injury Trust were absolutely instrumental in all areas of my research.
‘It’s inspiring to hear these everyday stories of everyday life that are these quiet feats of power within a household that could be right next door to you.
‘Also, hearing people say to me how they haven’t had a novel that would put this subject matter front and centre really spurred me on to write this. It felt more important than ever,’ he shares.
His industry inspirations
Not bound by genre, character, storyline, or medium, the Irish actor has dipped his toes into coming-of-age, fantasy, period, contemporary and beyond – and he’s nowhere near done testing the edges of his creativity just yet.
Citing One Battle After Another filmmaker, Paul Thomas Anderson, as one of his industry inspirations for the ‘enriching, complicated, diversified stories’ he tells.
‘You don’t hit a point and then go: “Cool, that’s me, I’ve done my peak. The peak never seems high enough”. I find that inspiring.’
The screen and stage star has been surrounded by acting greats from the start of his career, alongside the late Anthony Head in Merlin (last week calling him the ‘pinnacle of a role model’), through to Katherine Parkinson, Gemma Chan in Humans and Kenneth Branagh on Belfast, who also endorsed his book.
In fact, he shares that he has a tradition of collecting ‘one book, one movie, one song’ that inspired his co-stars to become storytellers. ‘I’ve had the lucky opportunity to work with so many different people, which gives me a real insight. I have a playlist that is probably hundreds long at this stage,’ he says.
Navigating fame after Merlin
Despite his career ambitions, the actor remains a private person, wanting his work to speak for itself. I point out that he’s amassed a large fanbase since his Merlin days – does that affect how he navigates fame?
‘It’s probably all part and parcel of my personality. I’m very much my own guy. I’ve never had any social media, I’ve never had any online presence. I just stick to the thing that I’m good at, or the thing that I feel drawn to, which is sending those stories out into the world.
‘As far as I’m concerned, if there’s anything that gets in the way of that, it’s not my business to put it there. That’s the way I’ve been from the beginning, and I don’t feel that changing anytime soon.’
Still, he’s touched by any of his work that moves people who consider themselves fans, whether of his onscreen work or his writing.
‘That’s the only reason why you do something, isn’t it, to make someone feel something, and I’m lucky enough to be in an industry that is designed for that very thing.
‘Anyone who becomes a fan of you, it probably means you’ve made them feel something, so yeah, I will never feel really tired of that.’
Now a thriller junkie – as well as The Fall, he’s also starred in The Killing Kind, The Boy That Never Was and Dead and Buried, to name a few – he acknowledges that he’s drawn to ‘dark projects’.
‘I see projects as challenges. I see opportunities to do things when I don’t have all the answers, when I don’t know exactly how to do something. That’s usually why I would do it.
‘If I feel like I could do it standing on my head or with my eyes closed, it’s probably the wrong reason to do something,’ he says about his proclivity for chilling stories.
On joining the Apple TV series Trying
Still, his upcoming show is a total 180, this time joining Apple TV’s hit comedy-drama, Trying, about a couple (played by Esther Smith as Nikki and Rafe Spall as Jason) navigating the complex world of adoption and trying to raise a family.
It’s a heartwarming tale of found family now entering its fifth season, with Colin as a guest star who plays a vital role in the office when Nikki starts a new job.
‘When I [watched the show], I was hooked. I loved it.
‘I get drawn to these quiet acts of power that are happening every day around us, that we don’t always see. This incredible desire to be parents, to be loving, to be supportive, to be a family. There’s almost no greater stakes, on that level, that a lot of us can relate to.’
Saying it was a ‘no-brainer’ to join the cast, he continues: ‘Her and I were working together a lot, and we just got on like a house on fire.
‘[The set] really did feel like home straight away, and it’s one of the happiest experiences I’ve had, which I think shows on screen. It really does, when there’s a happy set and a happy crew and a happy team, that heart definitely beats on the screen.’
As for what’s next, now a published author, with more TV shows on the horizon, he’s already got his sights set on his next move.
‘All being well, I’d love to find my feet on a stage soon, so that’s very much on my radar at the moment.’
The Ballad Of Ronan McCoy by Colin Morgan (HQ,£16.99) is out June 18. Trying series five returns on Apple TV Plus on July 8, 2026.