This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
It’s the morning after the night before and Mawaan Rizwan has a languorous air about him. Tired but satisfied, almost post-coital, he reclines in the back of a car leaving London for Stratford-upon-Avon where, until 30 May, he’s on stage at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Bertold Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.
As the city’s edifices of steel, sandstone and glass give way to suburban sprawl, Rizwan is in a reflective mood. “I’m really alive right now,” he says. “Like, every cell in my body is creatively fulfilled.”
The night before was the Bafta Craft awards, where those who work behind-the-scenes in TV are recognised for their creativity and talent. There, Juice’s Philippa Mumford picked up the award for production design, declaring it “a dream come true” before Rizwan crashed the stage to sing her praises. “It’s unheard of that a comedy wins this category because we were so low-budget,” he said, as the ingenious and inventive Mumford beamed beside him. “Philippa worked her arse off and the team were incredible and everything was made by hand. In the age of AI, we need people like Philippa.”
We need people like Rizwan too, says Seán Linnen, who directs him in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, a parable about the rise of Hitler that has clear resonance for today. “He has such a hunger to tell a story in the most entertaining way and if you give him a note or an idea, he’ll run into it head-first and explode it – which then gives permission for the actors around him to do the same thing. And they go to places that you think are impossible to reach. He makes other actors bolder and braver. He has such precision and poise, and then is also fearless in being messy and ugly and raw and mischievous.”
When I relay Linnen’s comments to Rizwan in the back of his car, he sits up and is palpably moved. “That Seán sees all that is beautiful,” he says. “If I had a CV, I’d put that on it.”
At the top of that imaginary CV would also be Juice, the series Rizwan created, written and stars in, which has earned him his own Bafta nomination at the Television Awards. It’s a series he loves – not least because it has been the making of him. “Five years of my life doing two series, it’s such a privilege being at the epicentre and having creative control of a project like that, but it’s a lot of pressure and a really intense process,” he says. “You can write on your own but unless it’s a one-person show, you need other people to embody it and then it takes on a life of its own. I love that transition moment where the caterpillar of the script becomes the beautiful butterfly of performance.”
And, Rizwan says, you have to let that butterfly fly. “You can’t control it too much. You have to let other people do their thing. On Juice, it was a constant dance – being a leader, but getting out of people’s way, particularly my mum and brother [who also star in the series]. And look what happened yesterday [at the Bafta Television Craft Awards] – Philippa took the ideas and ran with them on series two. There were things where, if I tried to control it, it just wouldn’t have been as beautiful and magical as the stuff she made.”
Rizwan draws an analogy from Of Mice and Men. “You can love the rabbit too much and squeeze it to death.”
Win or lose, the Baftas will be his goodbye to Juice. “It will always be my first love and there isn’t anyone involved with that show that I don’t adore, but I think it’s healthy to close chapters.”
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Though he’s upfront that his work is therapeutic, Rizwan is adamant that he’s no tortured artist. “Some people work great in that energy but I need to feel hope to make stuff. Even if I’m writing something really dark, I need to feel hope to be disciplined and get to the desk or the rehearsal and be a ‘yes, and…’ person. I need to be alive, lively.”
And with his relish at being part of someone else’s show, alive Rizwan most certainly is. His languor has evaporated as he leans forward to tell me of a new goal he has to aim for.
“The day before we came up to Stratford from London, we went to the Together Alliance march against fascism. It was such a nice way of finishing the rehearsal process and seeing all these different communities coming together – Muslim aunties and uncles dancing to a trans[gender] DJ, Jews Against Genocide – was just joyous and beautiful. By the end of it, I was just crying. We’ve been so indoctrinated into believing there’s nothing we can do, but there is resistance and hope that comes from just showing up, congregating and listening to each other.
“My goal is to show up and the more I show up, the less I’m at home alone and doomscrolling. After all, it’s the resistible rise. Stress on the resistible.”
The Bafta Television Awards are on Sunday 11 May at 7pm on BBC One.
BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises
Shot at Sea Containers London
Photography: Rachel Louise Brown @rachellouisebrownstudio
Styling: Natalie Read @natreadstylist
Set Design: Propped Up @propped_up_ltd
Hair and make-up: Niki Mark @makeupby_niki
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