Luvvie Darling

Luvvie Darling is a fictional character in the British comic "Viz"

He is an exaggerated parody on old-school British Shakespearian stage actors: pompous, bombastic, profligate and pretentious in his use of literary quotes, habitually referring to famous, real-life actors in familiar terms (such as "Dear old Larry O." for Sir Lawrence Olivier).

His name is a pun on the insincere and over-affectionate terms, "luvvie" and "darling" that actors and actresses are stereotyped as employing with one another.

Every episode begins with Luvvie 'Resting between jobs' - which is showbiz chat for him 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'!

Luvvie 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. He passionately believes in promoting the cultural value of theatre, is ecstatic at any chance to show off his self-proclaimed acting talent, and auditions constantly for roles which are often completely unsuited to him. For example, a director casting for "Romeo and Juliet" was hard-put to convince Luvvie that the role of Romeo required a man half his age at the most. Luvvie's ludicrous ham acting style and overbearing personality result in him never gets anything more than bit or walk-on parts at best; at worst, his only theatre employment is cleaning the toilets. In several tales he ends up having to act in porno films. He often has trouble remembering his lines, as was showcased when he was playing Mr Blobby on a roadshow who only had one line "Blobby" repeated over again and he had to ask for a prompt.