King Alfred, the man who saw the future and understood that the unity of Saxons was the only way England would survive, is the man at the center of The Last Kingdom. Hate him or love him, Alfred was a great king. Despite his hatred for Danes, Alfred was wise enough to negotiate with them when his kingdom was at stake and even recruited one, Uhtred the Godless, to lead his armies.
While Uhtred, portrayed by Alexander Dreymon, is the face of the show, his legacy is impossible if Alfred's vision wasn't there to lead everyone. The immortality of this interesting Saxon king is the reason why David Dawson has become such a person of interest for fans. Here are ten details everyone should know about the British actor.
His Early Career
David Robert Dawson is actually a Virgo, born on 7 September 1982, so he is only 38 years old, making him way younger than the actual King Alfred, who was 50 years old by the time of his death. And David Dawson may not have anticipated playing King Alfred when he started his career writing plays aged just 17.
Both of his plays, Divorced and Desperate and The Boy In Bed, were performed on stage. He then proceeded to write multiple screenplays, but he has since given up on writing to focus on acting. He trained as an actor at RADA from 2002 to 2005. He performed in his first professional acting role as an understudy to Kevin Spacey.
Other Screen Roles
The Last Kingdom has been Dawson's biggest career-defining engagement so far, but not his only one. Immediately after graduating from RADA, Dawson starred in the 2005 British medical drama Doc Martin as Wallace. He had a lot to learn, though, forcing him to retreat to stage plays and minor roles until 2010 when he finally appeared in Luther as Toby Kent.
2010 also came with Dawson's breakthrough role as Tony Warren in The Road To Coronation Street, which has been the stepping stone to the biggest roles he has had in his two-decade-long career.
Awards And Nominations
David Dawson hasn't won any awards for his performance in The Last Kingdom so far, although some fans hope he will. He is best known for his performance in historical drama and films, especially in the 2016 reproduction of the three-part mini-series of The Secret Agent and portraying Joseph Merrick in the 2019 film Year Of The Rabbit.
Dawson's best-known award nomination is the Olivier Awards nomination for the Best Newcomer for the role of Smike in Nicholas Nickleby. His reviews on both silver screens and TV have improved over the recent years, making him a prospect for a bigger award soon.
His View On Alfred The Great
David Dawson is an ardent researcher and lover of history, but his image of Alfred the Great was very different from what he was expected to portray. His view of the great king was guided by the statue of the English king in Winchester, which portrays a colossal man whom that most people wouldn't expect to be portrayed by the slender David Dawson.
When he finally read the script and understood that Alfred was also a lover of books and a wise man, he developed more love for the King. He was also surprised when he was only given a simple tunic for his costume, as the rest of the cast got scary Viking costumes for the set. He then understood that the wise King Alfred didn't care much about dressing; he just wanted one England.
Awkward Moments On Set
Dawson isn't one to be caught in awkward moments on set, but The Last Kingdom was a demanding show, and even the best of the best were tested. Unlike other members of the cast who knew how to ride horses, Dawson hadn't ridden horses before, so he had to learn on set. He was given a horse named McFlurry, whom he described as "a little bit of a diva."
The horse kept stopping to eat grass, and Dawson would try to raise his head, which for the horse meant reversing. He finally got the hang of it and managed to shoot the action scenes just like the rest of the crew. He is also not a trained martial arts expert meaning, he couldn't shoot the fighting scenes as well as Alexander Dreymon (Uhtred) and Millie Brady (Aethelflaed).
His Love Life
Unlike Alfred, who was a womanizer in the first season of The Last Kingdom, David Dawson is not a ladies man. Unlike Alexander Dreymon (who was rumored to be dating Eliza Butterworth, who plays Lady Aelswith in the show), David Dawson has not been rumored to be dating any co-star in The Last Kingdom, or any other person for that matter.
He is 38, but has not been linked to any partners so far, which strongly suggests that he is single. He keeps his personal life private and doesn't keep any social media accounts, which is why the information on his love life is very scant.
His View On Lady Aelswith
Eliza Butterworth is only 26, which is why her perfect portrayal of the queen mother and mama bear Lady Aelswith has been hailed by all fans. David Dawson portrayed Aelswith's distant husband perfectly, but his opinion of Lady Aelswith was totally different from what fans expected.
According to Dawson, Alfred and Aelswith don't enjoy sharing the bed, and to a large extent, she was more dominant than Alfred. He also said that that Aelswith was still the perfect strong woman to stand behind a king. Considering the level of injustice Aelswith tolerated from Alfred, fans expected Dawson to be more sympathetic to the poor queen mother.
His Relationship With Alexander Dreymon (Uhtred)
Alfred had a rather strained relationship with Uhtred, but he had no option but to trust him. Alfred actually grew to love Uhtred against his own convictions, because Uhtred refused to convert to Christianity. For their hard but necessary bromance to work out on set, Dawson and Dreymon had to spend long hours together after each scene and soon grew fond of each other.
They spent over seven months together on set and got to like each other enough to start pranking each other.
Life After The Last Kingdom
The Death of Alfred was expected, but David Dawson's exit wasn't. Fans hoped he would stay and even appear in throwback scenes, but the show seems to have little room for that. David Dawson's exit from the show, however, opened the door to better roles for him, with the biggest one being Joseph Merrick in Year Of The Rabbit, which attracted a huge audience.
He had also stepped off The Last Kingdom shortly in 2016 to play Vladimir in The Secret Agent, which earned him a great following as well, since the trilogy was considered to be the best adaptation of the 1907 book.
His Dream Role
Playing Alfred the Great would be any actor's dream role, but not necessarily David Dawsons. He, however, confessed that as a fan of history and was a researcher himself, so he was really proud to have brought that great king to life.
During an interview with his cousin Sarah Oliver, Dawson confessed that he enjoys the jump in time that comes with acting historical drama. He also said that A Clockwork Orange was his favorite film, and he would have loved to be in it if he was given a chance.