THE man in front of me is trying to explain why he abandoned his betrothed at the altar. ‘I’ve been stopped in the street by people saying: “How could you? How could you have done that to a young girl, she had her future with you.” I say: “No, she didn’t, look what she’s done since—she’s been off with all sorts, she’s had a very good time. She had a lucky escape.”’
Before you judge him, the man in question is the actor Robert Bathurst and the young girl was Lady Edith Crawley, jilted by Sir Anthony Strallan in Downton Abbey. Viewers may have been aghast, but he feels his character was misunderstood. ‘It was a rather sweet friendship, old Anthony and Edith. It was after the First World War, when a lot of women were looking for something stable, but he felt she could do better and so, for perfectly honourable reasons, he left—not knowing that he was going to get shouted at in the street forever more.’
Another of Mr Bathurst’s characters who might divide opinion is the pompous, yet rather likeable David Marsden in ITV’s Cold Feet, which first aired in 1998. ‘I’ve enjoyed playing him. He was much more brittle before—you’ve got to find chinks of humanity, to make sure you’re not just playing one note.’ After a 13-year absence, the show returned in 2016 for four more series, the last of which recently concluded.
Denne historien er fra March 11, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra March 11, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
