Sir Ian McKellen opens up on challenges of playing LS Lowry for new BBC documentary

Sir Ian McKellen has described the "challenging" experience of lip-syncing the voice of acclaimed English artist LS Lowry for a new immersive BBC documentary, admitting the process was "not easy".

The veteran actor, 86, known for his roles in The Lord Of The Rings and X-Men, is set to embody the painter, Laurence Stephen Lowry, nearly five decades after his death in the Arts Arena film LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes.

The documentary will see Sir Ian "add the body and the face" to Lowry's voice, synchronising his performance with previously unheard recordings of the artist. These tapes capture interviews between Lowry and Angela Barratt, a young fan who spoke with him about his life from childhood to his final days.

Reflecting on the unique demands of the role, Sir Ian stated: "I’m surprised to discover the most challenging aspect of lip syncing is making your mouth fit the recorded words. It ain’t easy. I don’t find it easy."

He expressed admiration for his co-star Annabel Smith’s proficiency in the technique, explaining the meticulous process: "You record a sentence at a time until you’ve got an exact match."

Sir Ian also voiced his curiosity about the final result, questioning his own performance: "I’d be very interested to see what it looks like and I know what it sounds like, but am I doing enough with my face, am I doing too little? I don’t know."

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He acknowledged the difficulty of mastering the skill quickly, but was drawn to the project by his interest in Lowry and the prospect of acquiring "a new ability" late in his career.

Sir Ian noted a particular characteristic in Lowry’s speech from the tapes: "What’s surprising about these Lowry tapes is that he gets the inflection wrong. He doesn’t always stress the right word." He contrasted this with an actor’s typical focus on clarity and intention.

However, he found joy in conveying nuances beyond the spoken word: "But it’s been fun for me, beyond the words to perhaps indicate there’s sometimes a twinkle in his eye and a glance to the side that the sound recorders couldn’t have picked up. There’s more going on in these tapes than just the words, I think." He concluded that while a voice reveals "an awful lot", the actor's contribution of "the body and the face" completes the presentation.

The actor also shared a personal reflection on the power of recorded voices: "I wish I had sound recordings of my long-dead family, for example, and I would love to hear my mother’s voice and my father’s. Not just to take me back, but because a voice reveals an awful lot about a person and would tell me things that I didn’t get a chance to understand while they were alive. I think the same’s true with hearing these tapes."

Discussing his connection to Lowry, Sir Ian highlighted the artist’s appreciation for the performing arts: "I mean he appeals to me as an actor because he clearly loved the theatre, we know that from his reports of his life and he liked the ballet, he liked pantomime. And I think that’s reflected more than people perhaps realise in the paintings and drawings." He added: "I think what’s revealed from these tapes is that he did very much to his work, his paintings. He was a great artist."

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The one-hour Arena documentary, part of the BBC’s long-running arts strand, will also delve into how the industrial landscapes of Salford and Greater Manchester evolved over time, a recurring motif in Lowry’s distinctive artwork.

LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes is scheduled to air on BBC Two and iPlayer at 9pm on February 25.