Ryan Sampson: “I’m obsessed with people and how they perceive the world”

Ryan Sampson doesn’t see Mr Collins, one of Jane Austen’s great comic creations, as a bumptious numpty or a conceited creep. The way he plays the nervy clergyman in The Other Bennet Sister, the BBC‘s revisionist period drama now available in full on iPlayer, Collins is a man misunderstood in his own time – namely, rural England in the early 19th century. “I’m a character-based actor so I’ve got a real obsession with people and how they perceive the world,” Sampson says when we meet in an Italian cafe near his East London home. “There have been excellent versions of this character before,” the actor and writer continues, singling out David Bamber’s “wacky” Collins in the BBC’s fondly remembered Pride and Prejudice series starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, “but I felt like none of them are [exploring] the thing that I think is going on within him.”

Which is? “I mean, I think it’s the neurodivergent thing,” Sampson says, citing a term that wasn’t coined until 1998, around 170 years after Austen’s death. “He’s heavily anxious with low self-esteem, but also has a big ego. I like to play a character with that mix of ingredients, because it makes for an unusual approach to life.” Austen scholars can debate Sampson’s diagnosis as much as they like, but his self-important, awkward and slightly vulnerable Collins is the perfect fit for The Other Bennet Sister. This nimble adaptation of Janice Hadlow’s 2020 novel retells the events of Pride and Prejudice from the perspective of Mary Bennet (Ella Bruccoleri), the bookish and supposedly plain sister of Austen’s heroine, Lizzy. “The comedy comes from his lack of self-awareness – the disconnect between how he sees the world and how others see it,” Sampson says. “But there are also scenes with Mary where he shows a more fragile side. He sort of admits that he doesn’t understand the rules of this class-driven world and can’t seem to access the person he’s supposed to be.”

Since he began his career at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre in 2001, 40-year-old Sampson has played a succession of memorable comic characters: deadpan lackey Grumio in Plebs, oddball entrepreneur Tommo in Brassic, jittery carpet salesman Glen in Mr Bigstuff, the award-winning Sky One sitcom he created. So, it comes as quite a surprise today when he says he doesn’t always enjoy the actual acting. “I take it too seriously, and I get quite overwrought,” he says. “I’m a bit of an over-thinker, so I find [the acting process] a little bit intense and heavy. I’m no fun on set, really,” he says. He’s almost certainly doing himself a disservice here, at least on today’s evidence: Sampson is great fun and totally open throughout this interview, which he allows to overrun even though he’s meant to be cracking on with scripts for series three of Mr Bigstuff.

Growing up in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, the son of a father who sang in working men’s clubs and a mother who did social work, Sampson says he was a “school pariah” who often felt invisible. “I was sort of oblivious as to why. I thought people just hadn’t noticed me,” he recalls. “But as a result, I spent a lot of my school days sort of watching everyone else and working out what their social interactions were about and why [some] people had social currency. I think that’s what’s made me want to make characters that have an internal truth about them.” He began taking group acting classes at 13 when his mum worked out that the lisp he had suddenly developed was a shameless affectation. “I think she was like, ‘This guy needs an outlet,'” Sampson says with a laugh, noting that her maternal instinct was spot-on. “Straight away, it was like, ‘I’m obviously meant to be doing this’,” he adds. “And I had friends [at acting class], whereas at school I was an absolute outcast.”

Since his first professional roles on stage in Sheffield – Prince Edward in Marlowe’s Edward II, a different Prince Edward in Shakespeare’s Richard III – Sampson has rarely been out of work. He’s had guest parts in British TV staples like Doctor Who and Holby City, played a Victorian journalist in period crime drama The Frankenstein Chronicles, and appeared in two episodes of The Crown as Dudley Moore. “There aren’t many real-life characters you can play when you’re 5’4,” he says wryly, “though I’d love to have a crack at Chaplin or Keaton.” In 2010, quite soon after his mother passed away, he auditioned for the lead in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, which ultimately went to Martin Freeman. “I thought I could just carry on after mum died. But I got to the interview with Amy Hubbard, this really huge casting director, and just cried at her,” Sampson recalls. “She took me out the room, gave me a big hug and stuff, and said: ‘I don’t think you’re ready for this.'” Deep-down, would he have liked such an enormous role? Sampson shrugs. “I don’t know what my life would be like now.”

Understandably, he seems much sadder that his mum didn’t witness his breakout success with Plebs, the hit ITV2 sitcom set in Ancient Rome that ran between 2013 and 2022. Still, Sampson says his career’s most significant gearshift has come since Mr Bigstuff, which he created, writes and star in, premiered on Sky in 2024. This funny and touching odd couple comedy follows the evolving relationship between Sampson’s fretful Glenn and his chaotic estranged brother Lee, played by Danny Dyer. In 2025, when Dyer won a BAFTA award for his swaggering performance, he hailed Sampson as “one of the best actors this country’s ever produced” – quite a compliment from such a straight-shooter.  “I didn’t appreciate how much Mr Bigstuff had changed things for me until this last six months, when people started asking me to work on some really big, exciting projects,” Sampson says. “It’s like you prove yourself in this industry by making something that is entirely your own idea.”

Creating Mr Bigstuff has also led to a personal breakthrough. “I grew up perceiving myself as not fitting into what men were supposed to be,” confides Sampson, who is gay and in a long-term relationship. “For a lot of years, I felt really distrustful of straight men, so I had to work out where that was coming from inside me. And I think writing this show has sort of helped me to work out what goes on in their minds.” Well, co-starring opposite a ‘diamond geezer’ like Dyer is one way to get over a distrust of straight men. “Yeah, exactly!” he laughs. “But actually, in some ways, Danny’s a bit fruity as well. He’s very sensitive and emotionally led, which is exciting to be around.”

Sampson still has a chunk of series three to write, which means he does need to drain his cup and get back to his desk. “People’s attention spans wane such a lot now, so I always try to make it very funny and very dramatic at the same time,” he says. “Consequently, there’s a slight telenovela vibe to the plotting, but I’m OK with that. I feel like it has quite a specific flavour.” Frankly, from Ryan Sampson, we’d expect nothing less.

The Other Bennet Girl is available now on BBC iPlayer