Katherine MacAlister talks to Richard Hawley, the ace of Dealer's Choice, a play set in the gritty world of amateur poker

It’s a creative name, Richard Hawley. There’s Richard Hawley the Britpop guitarist, Richard Hawley the Commodores saxophonist and Richard Hawley the actor. I’m talking to the latter, who also owns a guitar and knows the former, confusingly. “I have suggested we all get together for one gig, The Richard Hawleys, it’d be great, wouldn’t it?” he chuckles.

He’s immensely likeable, Richard Hawley the actor: affable, amenable, deliciously rough around the edges and passionate about what he does.

Needless to say, research wasn’t required for his current role in Dealer’s Choice about a group of men who sit down to play poker, a superbly crafted play written by Patrick Merber, based on Merber’s own Oxford poker days.

“I still play poker in cellars with a bunch of Brighton scumbags which sometimes goes on for several days,” Richard admits. Good training then? “I guess so, “ he grins. His biggest win? “£7.26,” he says and then howls with laughter.

A far cry from his famous buttoned-up character DI Richard Haskons in Prime Suspect, the perfect foil for Helen Mirren’s gloriously unstable DCI Jane Tennison, while refusing to take any credit for his long standing role in the award winning detective series. “Right place, right face I guess,” he says. “It was great to be around then though because Helen is a riot and a rightful national treasure, a real actress and a star,” he says happily.

“I think they kept me in for so long because my character had a home life, in direct comparison to Helen’s who was unable to have any kind of happiness, but Prime Suspect was a piece of luck and it was ideal to be working with her at that time.”

With recent parts in The Musketeers and Endeavour, the TV work continues unabated, but theatre was an itch that wouldn’t go away. “I haven’t done theatre for a long time and this was everything I needed because I felt a real urge to come back and then the part of Stephen the restaurant owner came up.”

And here he is, strutting his stuff on stage for the first time in five years. “Coming back into the theatre wakes you up. It’s really fun, exciting and tremendously tiring, because Dealer’s Choice is a really tight show on every level — intellectual, physical and psychological, an absolute gift. It’s a really wonderful play because it reveals itself on a multitude of levels so has lots of depth as well as being very funny. It’s a really tight ensemble.”

Merber himself even visited the rehearsals in Northampton to discuss the revival, Dealer’s Choice being famously based on his poker circle at Wadham when he played every week with a bunch of actors including Samuel West.

“Even Patrick couldn’t have seen how big a problem gambling addiction has become compared to when Dealer’s Choice was first staged in 1995. It’s gone off the scale since then, and as men we don’t seem to have moved on at all,” Richard chuckles.“Because Dealer’s Choice is more about the characters than the poker. It’s about family, life, decision making, about men being crap, fiercely ambitious, loveable losers, about the impossibility of parenting, and looking at feelings and love in a man-kind-of-way.”

Also featuring Stephen’s son, who’s playing poker to pay off his debts, Stephen’s own flaws are soon laid bare. “He’s not a bad guy and he thinks he’s respectable but actually he’s miserable and everyone else sees his gambling addiction for what it is. Because it’s a bit hypocritical to be criticising someone for something that you’re also doing and probably responsible for isn’t it? So Dealer’s Choice reveals a lot about the relationship between fathers and sons and the difficulties and mentoring involved.”

Not something that Richard has ever had to worry about with twin daughters however. “Its really interesting because while I’ve been a young man now I’m one of the oldest on stage. But I do know that boys punch each other and fight it out.” And girls? “I’d never get in the middle of my two. I just admire from afar,” he chuckles.

Living in Brighton, Richard hails from up north but stayed in Brighton once he discovered the South Coast metropolis. “My kids all went off to university and then come back to Brighton because it’s so much fun,” he shrugs.

“But I’ve been really lucky. And Dealer’s Choice talks about luck a lot, not just about the luck of winning and losing in poker, but in life which has lots of relevance to an actor where your hopes and dreams are shattered with that last card. Acting is just a form of beautiful desperation,” he says smiling. “But I think that’s why Patrick never filmed Dealer’s Choice. My suspicion is that it’s such a perfect piece of theatre that he’s kept it intact.”

So why didn’t Richard ask him in person? “We played poker instead and he cleaned us all out and then buggered off back to London,” he chuckled, unrepentedly.

Dealer’s Choice
Oxford Playhouse
Tuesday until Saturday June 21
Ticket Office on 01865 305305 or book online at www.oxfordplayhouse.com