MICHAEL SOCHA talks This is England, Once Upon a Time, Being Human, The Cage & Having A Laugh On Set

Half the Picture’s guest this episode is Michael Socha, the actor renowned for his brilliant turns as Harvey in ‘This is England’, Tom in ‘Being Human’, Will Scarlet in ‘Once Upon a Time’ and Matty in the upcoming BBC thriller ‘The Cage’ amongst so many others. Michael joined Billy on the pod’ to chat about making ‘The Cage’ alongside the great Sheridan Smith as well as his time on ‘This is England’ and the most important thing he learned about acting from Shane Meadows. He also touched on bringing authenticity to werepuppies and vampire hunting in ‘Being Human’, his bittersweet experience making ‘Once Upon a Time’, the joy of shooting a Kasabian music video dressed as Richard III opposite Lena Headey and why the art of acting speaks most deeply to him. For all this and more, watch on! #thisisengland #michaelsocha #shanemeadows #thecage #sheridansmith #podcast #interview #movie #filmmaking #film #bts #beinghuman #vampire #werewolf #ghost #onceuponatime #toxictown #jackthorne #adolescence #kasabian #jakebugg #musicvideo Note: This interview was recorded on 8th April, 2026 Make sure you SUBSCRIBE to the channel so you don’t miss any of Billy’s interviews! Full Episodes: @halfthepicturepodcast Listen to the podcast online... SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/7btEvvp... APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast... Follow us online! Half the Picture Instagram: / halfthepicpod Half the Picture TikTok: / @halfthepicpod Half the Picture Twitter/X: @HalfThePicPod Billy on Instagram: / BillyBarnell96 Timecodes: 00:00 - Intro 00:26 - Conversation Begins 01:43 - What Makes a Good Actor? 03:28 - Discovering Acting 08:40 - This is England 12:06 - Working with Shane Meadows 17:51 - Having Fun On Set 21:38 - Method Acting 23:56 - Being Human 29:11 - Once Upon a Time 34:27 - Toxic Town 36:26 - Stephen Graham 38:33 - Jodie Whittaker 39:12 - Robert Carlyle 41:04 - Music Videos: Jake Bugg, Kasabian et.al 43:55 - Trust Between Actors and Directors 46:22 - The Cage 48:37 - Fostering Working Class Actors 51:44 - The Purpose of Art 53:44 - Michael’s Favourite Roles 56:08 - Johnny Harris 57:47 - Outro ‘MICHAEL SOCHA talks This is England, Once Upon a Time, Being Human, The Cage & Having A Laugh On Set' is a non-profit project intended for educational purposes only. No copyright laws were intended to be broken. All rights to any material used remain courtesy of their respective owners.