The limitless Lenny Rush

Since he first appeared on our screens back in 2017, Lenny Rush’s star has been on the rise. From winning a Bafta at the tender age of 14 for his performance in Daisy May Cooper’s Am I Being Unreasonable?, to being on stage at the Old Vic, to winning the Taskmaster New Year special, it’s been a busy few years. Now, not only is he starring in the current season of global smash-hit drama Slow Horses, he is the lead actor in new primetime comedy The Reluctant Vampire. In an exclusive interview with Big Issue, Rush proves to be sharp, self-deprecating and very funny. He invites us into his vampiric character’s world and his inability to grow fangs, winds down the window on his farting scene with Gary Oldman, and raises a pinky finger to his Bond-villain ambitions. But when asked about his upcoming turn in the Harry Potter TV series, he’s putting a sock in it.

Also inside

• How councils are spending millions renting out properties as temporary accommodation that they’d previously sold off under Right to Buy
• Andi Osho, stand-up comedian and star of Blue Lights, says we need more big-hearted politicians with big mouths
• We shadow the women’s rough sleeping census, and explore the complex reasons they are largely hidden from view
• An academic study used trackers to follow rough sleepers, creating ‘heat maps’ to understand the precarity of their lives. Now it’s in phase two, and using tech to offer support
• Mark Constantine was homeless at 16. Now he’s the owner of Lush, a global brand with 800 stores. He recalls how Anita Roddick was instrumental in his success
• Irish author Louise Kennedy won awards for her debut novel, Trespasses. Now she’s back with a new book, drawing on her own life growing up amid the Troubles
• Willem Dafoe is still at the peak of his powers. He talks to Big Issue about his new film, Tenzing, shining a new light on the unsung hero of the Everest mission
• Rocky is 50 years old. Paul Whitelaw revisits Sylvester Stallone’s real-life underdog story which was so inextricably entwined with his on-screen creation
• And Bournemouth vendor Karl Burns reminisces on his day in the House of Lords

And much more

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