In writing his first novel, Starlings, Russell Tovey had the unique experience of hearing his words brought to life by his fellow actors, Andrew Scott and George MacKay.
The Audible original follows jaded drag queen Donald (Scott), who suddenly receives a knock on the door from his estranged younger brother, Owen (MacKay). The pair couldn’t be more different and, after not seeing each other for years, now have to navigate a complicated relationship full of ghosts from the past.
Speaking exclusively to Radio Times about what it was like to see the two actors take on the roles, Tovey explained: “I was there for all the recordings – [when] they started, I realised they were amazing, and I didn’t really intervene that much.
“The way that I’ve written this, it’s a novel, obviously, but it’s very interior monologue. You could perform it as an actor on stage. It feels very spoken word, and when actors took it, they ran with it, and that was so exciting and really humbling.
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“When you have the voices in your head, and then someone takes it and performs it in a way that’s better than what you imagined when you wrote it on the page, it’s kind of magic.
“So I didn’t need to help them or assist. I sort of gave hints about references or, ‘Maybe we can be a bit more emotional on that,’ or, ‘Maybe take your time with that.’ But the director, [Kate McAll] was amazing, so I just had the pleasure and privilege of being in the room.”
Tovey explained that the idea for Starlings had been with him for “many years” before Audible approached him to write a “scrappy, multi-narrative London queer story”.
“As any creative person, you make yourself vulnerable. That’s the purpose of being an artist,” he said.
“When you’re a writer, you can’t hide… As an actor, you go, ‘That’s the other writer’s words I’m saying.’
“But when you’re a writer, this is all from me. I can’t blame anyone else! If anyone’s like, ‘What the hell have you written?’… so there is a real vulnerability to that. But that felt really exciting.”
Starlings is available now on Audible.
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