If you’re a Blandings fan then we hope you have a Reader’s Digest magazine subscription because this month’s cover star is Timothy Spall who stars in the BBC comedy.
Spall plays eccentric aristocrat Clarence Emsworth, opposite Joanna Lumley who plays his wife Connie. “Clarence could be seen as a borderline imbecile,” he says of his character. “He’s very forgetful and is educated way, way beyond his intelligence. I suppose you could say that of quite a few people in positions of high authority in this country! But he literally wouldn’t hurt a fly. He causes problems and then inadvertently solves them through a combination of lunacy, eccentricity and being very sweet natured.”
Spall is thankful that he doesn’t have typical leading man looks, as it has opened a whole other door to interesting roles. "It's not a struggle for me to look like these downtrodden characters," he tells Reader’s Digest. "It would be ludicrous and undignified if I tried to portray myself as a romantic hero. The very idea makes me laugh. It would put people off their tea! But I'm blessed by looking the way I do, so I don't have to fight against natural beauty!"
Read the full interview in the March issue of Reader’s Digest.
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Posted by Laurie Clifford.