Adam Rickitt (E 1991–96) Reflects on the Rewards and Challenges of his Acting Career

Few Old Sedberghians can claim a journey as varied as that of Adam Rickitt (E 1991–96). From early ambitions on the rugby field to a brave leap into one of Britain’s biggest television institutions, his path has been shaped by hard work and a determination to be true to himself. In a wide-ranging interview, Adam reflected candidly on his time at Sedbergh, the lessons it instilled, and a remarkable career in the creative industries.

It was a pleasure to visit Adam – and his dog – at Dexter & Jones, the colourful craft beer and artisan gin store he runs with his wife, Katy Fawcett, in the pretty town of Knutsford.

For Adam, his standout memory of Sedbergh is the camaraderie. The environment, he believes, taught him some of the most important lessons of his life: respect, kindness and social versatility.

“People often say to me, ‘What’s the point in boarding school?’ For me, it’s two things,” he says with crystal clarity. “The first is that you are thrust into this environment where you are forced to interact with people you wouldn’t normally interact with. So you learn respect, you learn how to get on with different people, you learn how to be kind to people.”

The second lesson is work ethic: “It doesn’t matter whether or not you are the smartest kid in the class. You all just work hard because you know you’re lucky to be in that situation. Sedbergh instils in you a subconscious acceptance that everything you do has to be to the best of your ability.”

Thirty years after leaving the School, the hills surrounding Sedbergh still loom large in Adam’s mind. “When you think about the visual geography, you only learn to appreciate it once you’ve left. At the time, it almost feels like you’re in a fortress because you’re surrounded by these fells. But then you look back and realise the amazing beauty you had there, looking out over all those valleys. It was just the most beautiful place in the world.”

One of the most significant moments of Adam’s schooldays came during the Wilson Run. Having struggled with illness during his teenage years, completing the run became symbolic. “The first time I did the Wilson Run was when I started to get better,” he recalls. “Everyone knew I wanted to beat my dad’s time. It wasn’t especially fast, and I was nowhere near the top, but it was decent.”

Adam’s eyes still light up as he recalls the support from the School community as he approached the finish line. “The absolute noise of people, even the rugby coaches were cheering. They knew what I’d gone through, and doing the run for me was the first test of proving that I could beat everything that was going on in my life.”

The Rickitt connection to Sedbergh stretches back more than a century. His great-grandfather, grandfather and father all attended the school, as did Adam and his two brothers. “I did feel a lot of pressure because of my family’s historical presence there,” he says. “I remember on my second day, I was sitting in English and, sure enough, carved into the desk was ‘Rickitt woz ere 1901’ or something like that. That was my great-granddad!” He hoots with laughter at the memory.

Like the generations before him, Adam initially saw rugby as his future. His goal throughout school was to earn a place on the 1st XV. But privately, he nursed another ambition. “I loved the camaraderie of rugby, but I also wanted to act, and I probably didn’t pursue it because I worried about what people thought.”

That changed dramatically on the day he left school. Having secured a place at the University of Cambridge to study philosophy and law, Adam surprised everyone by announcing a completely different plan: he wanted to become an actor. “Dad was delighted,” says Adam with a dry smile. In reality, though, his father was remarkably supportive, telling him to take a gap year and give acting a proper try. If he could find work within a year, he could pursue it; if not, he would take up his place at Cambridge.

What followed was so fortuitous it almost sounds implausible. This was before the internet era, so Adam headed to the local library and worked his way through a huge directory listing acting agents across the country. He found one in Manchester that ran drama classes and gave them a call.

“I said, ‘Look, I’d like to become an actor. I’ve never done anything before.’ They told me there was a drama class starting the following week and said, ‘Come along, we’ll see how you get on.’” In the meantime, the agency suggested he attend an audition at Granada Television. “‘There’s no way you’ll get it,’ they said, ‘because you’ve never done any acting before. But it’ll show you what an audition is like.’”

Adam arrived with no expectations. “I went along thinking it was basically a day off,” he says. “Then, two hours later, I got a phone call saying, ‘You’ve got the job on Coronation Street. You start Monday.’ So that was scary!”

At the time, Coronation Street was a cultural phenomenon. In the 1990s, soaps dominated British television in a way that is difficult to imagine today, before streaming and the explosion of channels. “You were in people’s houses five days a week,” he says. “You became part of the family.”

Adam admits he had little understanding of just how famous the programme was. “Soaps were a bit like football teams. My family watched EastEnders, so I’d never seen a single episode of Coronation Street and had no concept of how big it was.”

The scale of the attention hit him the very night his first episode aired. Stopping at a supermarket with his mother after filming, he found himself mobbed by fans. “We should have been in and out in five minutes, but we were in there for four and a half hours because people kept coming in off the street to get autographs.”

Working on the soap proved to be an extraordinary learning curve: a soap actor can’t be late or unprofessional, Adam explains, because the schedule runs like clockwork. He also credits seasoned actors on the show, including John Savident, with teaching him the craft of acting. “I was literally able to leech off him,” he says with a smile. “My drama school was basically in front of 20 million people, five days a week.”

Adam’s fascination with acting began much earlier, inspired by his uncle, legendary stunt performer Bill Weston, whose credits included James Bond films, Alien, Star Wars, Titanic and the Harry Potter series. Watching his uncle appear on screen in The Living Daylights proved transformative. “It suddenly made me realise that the world you see on the screen is actually a created one – created by people,” he says. “From that point on, I always wanted to act.”

Once he entered the profession, the hard-working Sedbergh mentality kicked in and remained central to his approach. “For me, the only way to justify fame or celebrity is to become good at your job. I wanted to become the best version of myself as an actor that I could be.”

Having witnessed enormous change in the television industry, from a handful of channels to the age of streaming, he believes young actors now face a far tougher financial reality than previous generations. “There are far more creative opportunities now,” he says. “But the money’s falling out of the industry.”

That reality led him and Katy to establish their own business, Dexter & Jones, allowing him to avoid taking acting jobs solely for financial reasons. “Even successful actors need something financially sustainable because careers go in peaks and troughs.”

His advice to aspiring performers is wise and grounded: “Be passionate about being an actor, but don’t rely on it as the thing that puts food on your table or pays your mortgage. Have something else on the side as well.”

Adam is equally candid about the darker side of celebrity, particularly during the height of tabloid culture in the late 1990s and early 2000s when newspapers could “ruin a career” overnight, often through fabricated stories. Social media, he believes, has at least given public figures the opportunity to tell their own story directly.

But his own priorities remain far removed from celebrity culture. “I’ve never been to a celebrity party in my life,” he says. “Apart from the James Bond premiere, which was one of those moments where you think, ‘Sorry, I’m going to go to that!’”

For Adam, the key is to pursue acting because you love the craft, not because you crave fame. “I’d far rather go for a run in the woods or a pub lunch with my wife than go to some showbiz party,” he says. “If you decide to chase fame, you’ll find it a very empty life.”

Sedbergh continues to hold deep personal significance for Adam and his family. His father’s ashes have been scattered on Winder, overlooking the School, and his late mother’s ashes will soon be there too. “The Rickitt clan will always have a huge affinity to Sedbergh,” he says. “It’s been part of our family for over 100 years.”

As the conversation draws to a close, Adam gives a warm and heartful message to current pupils: “Enjoy it. You have this amazing opportunity in the education you’re getting, and just open your eyes and look around. You are in one of the most beautiful parts of the country. The more you make of it, the better your life will be because of it… Don’t waste a second.”