Danny Sapani in Marble Hall Murders: Roles & Career

Actor profile

Career and selected work

Danny Sapani is an English actor whose screen work includes contemporary drama, historical fantasy and major film franchises. Sembene in Penny Dreadful offers a sustained television role, while Misfits places him in a very different genre setting. His selected film appearances include The Last Jedi and Black Panther. Doctor Who viewers may recognise Colonel Manton from A Good Man Goes to War.

For a useful introduction, choose MotherFatherSon alongside Penny Dreadful. The settings are sufficiently different to prevent one familiar costume or genre from defining the performer. Sapani’s wider career also includes substantial theatre work, so a short screen list is necessarily selective. The purpose of the credits below is to help identify an appearance and plan a small viewing route. They are not a ranking, and a brief part in a major film should not be confused with the amount of time a continuing television character occupies on screen.

Six roles to explore

Misfits (2009) — Tony Morecombe.
Doctor Who (2011) — Colonel Manton.
Penny Dreadful (2014–2015) — Sembene.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) — medical frigate captain.
Black Panther (2018) — Border Tribe Elder.
MotherFatherSon (2019) — Jahan Zakari.

In the Susan Ryeland adaptations

Sapani plays DI Ian Blakeney in Marble Hall Murders. Blakeney belongs to the modern investigation, where Susan’s involvement in events brings her into contact with the police. His relationship with DC Emma Wardlaw is therefore a different kind of professional partnership from Susan’s imagined conversations with Pünd. When following their scenes, distinguish what Susan suspects from what the officers can establish. The series asks the viewer to move between reading a mystery for patterns and investigating a death in the contemporary world; Blakeney is part of the latter process.

Where to watch and explore next

Explore the Susan Ryeland episodes. Check local streaming services for other roles before subscribing. Use the year and character to identify the right production.

The character links below lead into the story guides. Endings stay in closed sections. Open them when you are ready for spoilers. Watching for the first time? Follow the episodes in order. Rewatching? Compare the performances across the two worlds.