When Francis Lovehall is talking about A Thousand Blows, a Disney+ drama created by Steven Knight, he reaches for a term from Paulo Coelho’s novel The Alchemist: “Maktub”, meaning “it is written,” or “it was meant to be”.

Lovehall plays one of two friends from Jamaica who become bare-knuckle boxers in Victorian London, and he felt so connected to the material that his involvement could have been “predestined”. He moved from Jamaica to London himself when he was 13, and he had been a professional sportsman before switching to acting.

“I’m very spiritual when it comes to life and how things come to you,” says Lovehall, “and this came to me at the perfect time. I learnt that so many of the jobs I didn’t get weren’t meant for me, but this one, when I got the job, it was almost like I already knew. And then to be alongside Stephen Graham and Malachi Kirby, actors I’ve looked up to for as long as I’ve known what acting was… it was a gift.”

Soon after he had settled in London, Lovehall excelled at his schoolmates’ favourite hobby, football, and at 17 he was offered a two-year contract by Brentford Football Club. “Two months into it, I realised I didn’t want to play football anymore.”

He had no idea what else to do until a former schoolteacher reminded him that he had always enjoyed drama classes. “My perception of drama school was people jumping around in leotards and tights,” admits Lovehall. But with the encouragement of his friend Romario Simpson (BBC Scotland’s Granite Harbour), he earned a place on the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art’s BA course in 2016.

Since graduating, Lovehall has had roles in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe: Lovers Rock, Apple TV+’s Masters Of The Air and Tyrell Williams’ award-winning stageplay Red Pitch, a three-hander about London teenagers who hope to become footballers.

Maktub, indeed. “Red Pitch is really where it started,” says Lovehall, who plans to write and produce as well as act. “I was able to show the industry that I’m a truth-teller, and that’s all I want to do — tell the truth, and hopefully shed light on truths that have often been put to the side.”

Contact: Alfred Califano, The Artists Partnership

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