Luvvie Darling

Luvvie Darling
Publication information
Publisher	Viz
First appearance	1987
Created by	Graham Dury

Luvvie Darling is a fictional character in the British comic Viz. Darling is depicted as an exaggerated parody of old-school British Shakespearian stage actors: pompous, bombastic, profligate and pretentious in his use of literary quotes, and habitually referring to famous, real-life actors in familiar terms (such as "Dear old Larry" for Sir Laurence Olivier).

Darling's name is a pun on the insincere and over-affectionate terms, "luvvie" and "darling" that actors and actresses are stereotyped as employing with each other.

Each Viz episode begins with Luvvie "resting between jobs" - a showbiz term for being out of work. His manager Louie is as useless as himself, drives (very badly) in a huge car, smokes a huge cigar, and drinks from a bottle marked 'Eau de Tap'. Darling is in his forties, dresses in a Hamlet-style period costume with embroidered tunic, frilled collar and cuffs, high boots and short ornamental cape. He has an Errol Flynn moustache and pointed goatee beard to offset his receding hairline. His appearance is based on stereotypical images of Shakespeare. Darling passionately believes in promoting the cultural value of theatre, is ecstatic at any chance to show off his self-proclaimed acting talent (once even in a prison, where he comes to grief) and auditions constantly for roles which are often completely unsuited to him. In one strip a director casting for Romeo and Juliet was hard-put to convince Luvvie that the role of Romeo required a man half his age.

Darling's ludicrous ham acting style and overbearing personality result in him gaining only bit (walk-on) parts at best; at worst, his only theatre employment is cleaning the theatre's toilets. In several episodes, Darling ends up having to perform in pornographic films, yet he often has trouble remembering his lines and so has the need for a prompt from a lowly stage hand. In another episode he is interviewed by 'Michael Perkinson' (a blatant reference to another very famous interviewer) and with every question he reveals more and more how much of a failure he is.

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