Rupert Frazer – Edward Colville
Rupert is best known for his many theatre roles including; Polonius in Hamlet directed by Calixto Bieito, Bernard Kersal in Maugham's The Constant Wife, at the Lyric Shaftesbury Avenue and Lord Windermere in Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan, at the Albery St. Martin's Lane.
He is also a well-
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Edward is Nath’s father. Mid 60s. He is a lower middle class ex stockbroker who went upmarket when his wife inherited the posh house unexpectedly from Great Uncle Rufus. It enabled him to catapult himself and his wife straight up the social ladder and to escape the ignominy of his losses in Lloyds.
Immediately prior to his inheritance, the family had been living in a small new build in Binfield. They had moved from Winkfield after the Lloyds disaster required them to sell virtually all that they owned.
Edward has always been a man obsessed with his image. Where he and his family are in society is his raison d’etre. Reckless investments in Lloyds initially enabled him to fund his climb up the social ladder. When it fell apart he didn’t blame himself, but the system. Edward is never wrong.
His theme is family. Everything he does he claims is for the good of it. The reality
is, it’s for his own good. He is utterly self-
The result is that he has successfully married off his daughters to the local landowners, condemning them to unfulfilled, damaged lives. But he can’t see this, thinking he has done them a favour. His attitude, since inheriting the house has been circa 1602, seeking out alliances to strengthen his position.
He has become obsessed with reclaiming the lands the house once held, seeing himself
as some sort of grand knight. Perhaps it’s because his father was a telephone cable-
Sorcha Cusack – Diana Colville
Sorcha is a hugely respected actress of many years experience in stage and screen. Recent films include Snatch, Angel and One of the Hollywood 10. Recent TV includes Silent Witness, Poirot, Casualty, Inspector Morse and Eureka Street.
Her extensive theatre roles have covered a huge range. These include; The Vagina Monologues, A Feast of Snails at the Lyric, View From the Bridge and Adrian Noble’s The Three Sisters at the Royal Court.
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Nath’s mother is in thrall to her husband. As a result she cannot (or will not) see his faults. She is prepared to sacrifice her children for her husband, genuinely believing that Edward has done them a favour.
She’s always well turned out, slap on – not for her the rustic county look. She isn’t bright, but has a certain way of exerting moral pressure on the family. She wouldn’t know what to do with herself if her children left home. They are her life and their lives are hers (she wishes). She doesn’t understand the concept that they might want to exist without her (or even that they could).
She is a martyr and the whiff of smoke as she ‘sacrifices’ herself on behalf of the family once more often hangs heavy. She believes that she is the matriarch of the perfect family. She can find no fault in anything, other than Nath’s desire to go to South America in the summer rather than spend it at home.
Her lack of vision, obscured by her utter faith in her husband is as terrifying as it is misplaced.
Tom Harper – Nathan Colville
Tom is one of the UK’s leading young actors. He has recently completed filming The Upside of Anger opposite Kevin Costner. Before that he was seen in Warner Bros’ What a Girl Wants and as the lead in cult indie movie Living in Hope.
His extensive theatre includes a season at the RSC, Frank in Mrs Warren’s Profession at the Bristol Old Vic and Lt. Willis In Taking Sides. TV includes Silent Witness, Judge John Deed and Holby City.
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Nath is 21 and just back from travelling after finishing university, where he’s been studying social anthropology. He’s a reasonably bright bloke (went to a minor public school), laid back and quite confident. However this confidence seems to drain away from him when he gets home.
He is the most distant from the family, but still retains a strong loyalty to them. He can be embarrassed by his family, but still wants to fulfil their image of him. However, the longer he has been away from his parents, the more he has begun to understand what they have put the rest of the family through. Contact with Chrissie’s family (who he met travelling) has made him realise that there are other ways to be a family.
She has relaxed him, but the family ties, at least initially, remain intact. The family has always been held up as the most important ideal. Conversation was almost always about family tittle tattle.
He is the youngest in age, but perhaps, Beanie apart, the most developed, although he is still trying to find out who he is and what his real relationship with his parents should be. What isn’t in doubt is his total love for Chrissie.
Charity Wakefield -
This was Charity’s first film role -
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Beanie is 25, chubby, pregnant and married to Philip. She is adopted and has a rebellious streak hidden deep within her.
On the surface she appears meek and mild, schoolgirlish almost. But she is more passionate than probably anyone else in the family. She’s in love with Barnie and has been for years.
But she too was persuaded into a marriage of convenience for her father, when she was too young to know any better. However as she has grown older, so she has grown wiser.
She is becoming more prone to fits of rebelliousness, her relationship with Philip is fast disintegrating as she begins to realise the full extent of his fecklessness. But for the time being at least, she remains prepared to play the family charade. She is bright which scares Diana who can only respond with violence.
Nicholas Irons -
Nick’s television credits include series roles as Lord Hugh in the BBC’s Berkley Square, James Kitching in Granada’s Coronation Street and more recently James Wellington in 20th Century Fox’s Emma Brody for US TV. His other television credits include guest roles in Sharpe’s Waterloo, The Investigator, Aristocrats, The Ancients, Other Animals and Relic Hunters. He will soon be seen playing Captain Paul Mauriac in the US mini series La Femme Musketeer.
On film Nicholas has appeared in The Madness of King George and played principal roles in A Kid In Aladdin’s Palace (Trimark Pictures), Soul Assassins (starring with Skeet Ulrich), Stormbringer, Vlad (starring with Billy Zane) and Ripper II.
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Archie is Milly’s non-
The family ignore his oddness, they have lived with it for so long that it no longer affects them. But for outsiders he seems weird and dangerous. There is certainly something malevolent about him. He has an unhealthy interest in the opposite sex and it appears that he got into serious trouble with one of the local’s daughters, though we’re not quite sure what happened.
He has a fascination for his sisters too and is obsessed with their bodies. However sometimes it’s difficult to work out whether he is being deliberately odd or whether he really is that strange. He is scared of his father, but is also desperate to please him. He is easily manipulated by Edward and acts as his sort of guard dog.
He’s also obsessed with his appearance and loves designer clothes and dressing up. He’s forever in natty suits wearing extraordinary trendy head gear. He has few social graces and often seems to blurt out the first thing that comes into his head. But it appears that he can also be quite charming when he wants to be/wants something.
He went to the local public school as a day boy having been asked to leave his previous boarding school due to unspecified reasons. Edward had to pay an additional fee to get him into this local school. He was bullied.
He has no specific job and seems to work on the estate with his father. In theory he will inherit the house as the oldest male.
Jenna Harrison -
Jenna starred in C4’s gritty My Brother Tom. TV includes Casualty, Cambridge Spies and Jonathan Creek.
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Milly is twin to Archie. She’s 24, pretty, sexy, almost slutty. Yet she is remarkably and unexpectedly naïve, to the point of stupidity. She’s like little girl in a sex bomb’s body.
Her life has been utterly blighted by spending too much time near her mother. She
has an almost Victorian attitude to sex and life. And about as much understanding.
Her knowledge of the world around her is virtually non-
She is ultimately a harmless flirt, but many, including her father and Nath, mistakenly think she is much more than that. Men tend to flock to her, and although she enjoys their attention, she seems sexually infantile and they usually drift away unsatisfied.
There’s a suspicion that her twin brother Archie tried to abuse her when they were younger, which would also explain a lot. She does something in a philosophy think tank for government.
Johanne Murdock -
Film includes Dance with Me, TV includes Holby City and Doctors.
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Juliana is the eldest daughter. She is in a nothing marriage to Bobby. Neither loved nor hated, they simply exist. They have a daughter, Emma, two, who is the focus of her attention. She has tried to make a go of her marriage, and they have settled into something.
It leaves her living vicariously through Nath, her favourite, whose love life she is fascinated by.
But she is pretty but tired. She is 30ish, but feels (and looks) 40. Her eyes betray the look of one who has realised what her life has amounted to, and it’s not very much. Her development was successfully stunted by Edward. He didn’t let her go to university instead she went to secretarial. As the eldest she lacked the confidence to stand up to her father (and mother), saw Bobby as an escape route and is now trapped.
She plays the dutiful mother/daughter because she has worked out that that is the line of least resistance. She just wants an easy life and this is now the extent of her ambition. Rocking the boat is not in her nature, even if she’d want to. She is quite motherly to the others.
William Scott-
Willy has been in a huge number of films and TV including: Tomorrow Never Dies, Vigo, Pandaemonium, Berkeley Square, Casualty, Longitude, Kavanagh QC and Anna Karenina.
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Philip is Beanie’s husband. He’s 35ish, an archetypal country sloane, checked shirts, cords, suede loafers. He’s good looking and a tremendous flirt. He’s also really quite weak, doesn’t have any huge ambitions and loves to shag around.
His family own the farm and estate next to the house. He loves the idea of being
a part of the whole landowning set up and of marrying the local girl from the big
house. But it doesn’t stop him wanting to bonk for Britain. He doesn’t mean anything
cruel by it, he’s just too short sighted and under-
As far as he is concerned, a wife should produce the sprogs, sort the dinners, organise the entertaining and look after the labradors as if they were her own kids. He struggles to enter the 21st century. Thinks he’s an English gent.
He went to Cirencester with a bunch of other country boys to study farming. Drank a lot of beer, shagged a lot of polo grooms and the like and generally horsed around. Married above his station intellectually.
Christine Adams -
Christine has done numerous TV and films in the UK and US including Hustle, CSI Miami, Pushing Daisies and Home Again.
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Chrissie is 21, a well-
She lived with her mother in North London before going travelling. Mother is university educated, works in publishing. Her father left when Chrissie was 10. She has a strong bond to her mother and other close family. She has existed in an intellectual atmosphere that is diametrically opposed to Nath’s family.
She has an equal amount of black and white friends and regards herself as part of
the ‘White Teeth’ generation. She studied politics at a red-
Stuart Bunce -
Stuart has been involved in a huge variety of TV & film: Spartacus, Space Race, Casualty and Egypt among others.
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Simon is a well-
He is very welcome at the house because the family (Edward and Diana at any rate) think he adds a certain flavour to the place. Improves their all round image. Simon is happy to enjoy their hospitality and believes that he has a real mission to save Milly’s soul.
He takes his duties seriously, but at the same time is part of the modern catholic church, happy to take part in society and be counted as a normal chap.
Richard Cant -
Richard has featured in The Bleak House, Midsomer Murders, The Bill, Shackleton and Doctor Who.
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Bobby is about 33. He struggles on the edge of sanity and can’t handle the responsibility he has either as an employee, farm owner or father/husband. It’s all just getting too much for him and he doesn’t know how to control it. He’s never felt entirely comfortable around the family and is quite shy. A bit of a loser.
