Q&A: Catching up with Tom Burke ahead of The Musketeers season finale

Santiago Cabrera, Tom Burke, Luke Pasqualino and Howard Charles in The Musketeers.

The third and final season of the BBC's adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' classic novel The Three Musketeers draws to a close next weekend, so we caught up with Tom Burke, who plays the musketeer's leader Athos, to find out what to expect.

Dumas's novel is one of the most filmed pieces of literature in history, with over 50 film and TV adaptations to date (as well as over 50 versions of loose Western adaptation, the sometime-John Wayne starring B-movie series The Three Mesquiteers). Have you seen many other versions? Do you have a favourite?

I’d seen several versions in my lifetime before I joined the cast. I’m a big fan of the Richard Lester version [1973 film, starring Oliver Reed and Michael York]. I still think there’s probably a version out there that could go further, but that one caught the comedy of manners aspect of the books, which we didn’t do so much as we were going for something different, but I do very much like that element in that version.

The story is set in a period of great turmoil across Europe with wars and political machinations dividing the continent. Following recent events with the UK’s Brexit vote and its aftermath, it looks surprisingly current. Do you think the story has any lessons for the modern world?

I really don’t know. I’m feeling rather pessimistic about it all. I’m finding myself increasingly attracted to literature that starts with pessimism as it’s leading point and goes from there. It’s really not a good day to ask me that. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m not an expert and I’ve heard so many points of view these last few days. I just don’t know what’s going to happen.

As a child you were diagnosed with dyslexia. Has that made it harder for you to succeed as an actor, from the point of view of learning lines and so on?

I was diagnosed dyslexic, but I should point out I don’t think it majorly impacted on me. I don’t feel that I overcame great odds. If anything it just pushed me in a certain direction that wasn’t academia or maths or science. I only see it as a blessing really. It doesn’t really affect me with scripts as it’s always been more numerical with me. I remember when I had to copy writing off the board at school it just looked to me like a magic eye picture, I could just see so many shapes. We always had lots of plays lying around our house [Burke’s parents were the actors David Burke and Anna Calder-Marshall, while his godparents were Alan Rickman and Bridget Turner], and I could read those fine. I don’t know if it was the breaks on the page or the amount of white on the page or the fact that you’re invited to interpret why people are saying what they’re saying rather than being told. I suppose that was my way into reading, which I think is worth sharing in case there’s other people out there who might benefit from the same. Strangely I find plays the hardest to read now — I’d much rather pick up a book, but at the time that was helpful for me.

Your first roles after drama school included parts in the TV dramas State of Play (2003) and Casanova (2005), which saw you lining up among big names such as John Simm, Peter O’Toole, James McAvoy, Bill Nighy and David Tennant. That must have been pretty satisfying for a young actor?

I was working with people I admired hugely which is a wonderful thing. I felt quite confident — when you come out of drama school you feel like you’re on top of everything. I always tell people to go to drama school even if they’ve already done movies or whatever because the way you encounter content is so different. When you’re auditioning it’s so haphazard, you just end up reading endless lines that you’re not even allowed to read the whole script for and you don’t get a clear measure of what might keep your curiosity and imagination piqued in the long term. At least at drama school you come into contact with all sorts of different writing of a high level and you get an idea of why you want to do this and what intrigues you, so you have a stronger sense of what you have an appetite for rather than just going into a room and getting any job you can.

The finale is set to screen here next week. Without giving to much away, what drama can we expect from the big sign off?

Series one started with Athos being completely dependent and somewhat institutionalised by the garrison, and he can’t envisage a life where he might leave it. That’s because he’s somewhat running away from life with a big ‘L’. Without giving too much away, it’s been a real journey for him, and for all of the characters. It’s been great to have the time over three seasons to set up something about the profundity of male friendships and see how they all impact on each other, which is usually hard to do.

You’re becoming something of a mainstay of the BBC’s historical drama output, with roles in adaptations of Great Expectations, the life of Napoleon Bonaparte and the recent War and Peace as well as Athos. Can we expect more historical epics from you in future?

I’d love to do more, though I suspect I should probably do something modern soon just to remind people that I do live in this century, you can become the ‘period movie guy’. But I’d love to do a Dostoevksy adaptation, perhaps another Tolstoy. I love all that stuff.

The Musketeers screens on BBC First, Saturdays at 10pm. The season finale is on July 9.