James Swanton is best known for otherworldly characters. He fathered the Antichrist as both Satan in Apartment 7A (2024) and the Jackal in The First Omen (2024), as well as appearing as the Magician in Tarot (2024), the Ash Man in Stopmotion (2023), the Spirit in Host (2020) and the Creature in Frankenstein's Creature (2018). He also played the title roles in two BBC chillers: Lot No. 249 (2023), Mark Gatiss's Ghost Story for Christmas, and The Curse of the Ninth (2024) in the final series of Inside No. 9 (2014). As a stage actor, James has been closely associated with Dickens. He took his acclaimed one-man play "Sikes & Nancy" to the West End's Trafalgar Studios and annually performs "A Christmas Carol" (amongst other ghost stories) at London's Charles Dickens Museum.

2023