Toby Stephens

This is from a blog about the actor Tony Church who died on March 25th. The part that includes Toby is written by Mr. Church’s son, Geoffrey.  The piece is called “A Farewell to the Stage”. 

“Suddenly the evening is under way. A series of prologues, and scene-setting speeches kicks us off, dominated by Tony Cher in crackling form on crutches doing the ‘Now is the Winter of our Discontent’ speech from Richard III. On one level the evening is bizarre, as if this extraordinary cast were back at drama school doing audition speeches. On the other hand it is intensely moving and wonderful. There is a sense of history, of genuine and heartfelt farewell to a stage on which these players have performed great things. 

There is a fantastic multi-voiced version of ‘To be or not to be’ featuring five great Hamlets of Stratford’s stage: David Warner and Michael Pennington, Mark Rylance, Alex Jennings, and the most recent Hamlet, Toby Stephens. 

Suddenly our alarm bell is on his feet, in the form of Richard Pascoe performing the seven ages of man, and Tony is gripping the arms of his chair in preparation. Although it has been a delight to be on this stage without a trace of performance nerves myself, suddenly I am anxious. How will it go? Will Tony be OK? However, once the cue comes, it all goes by like a dream. Tony launches himself and walks at stately pace down-stage centre - the old instincts coming back like clockwork. I shadow him and gently speak words that he barely needs, as prompts. He delivers the speech simply, beautifully, making absolute direct contact with his audience, his home, ‘this royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle…this little world, this happy breed of men. This precious stone set in a silver sea’ etc. And at the last I know it is safe to step back from the light and leave him unaccompanied for the final line ‘This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England’. 

We return upstage amidst thunderous applause, and as Harriet Walters helps me guide Tony back into his chair, I see that Greg was right - truly there is not a dry eye in the house, and those onstage are barely holding it together. In fact, as I glance across the stage I see that Toby Stephens is openly weeping. “

Source: Anonymous blog

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From a final interview with Simon Gray, after his diagnosis:

“Gray points to a baby picture on the fridge. “He won’t smoke,” he says of a newborn, Eli, his godson, the child of actor Toby Stephens. “His parents have given up.” That thought clearly pleases him.”

Source: Times Online 24 April 08

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An interesting snippet on Toby’s approach to working with scripts on the radio:

The sound of rustling paper can ruin a take. So holding the script is quite a skill. Actors have different approaches to the problem – you can see that John uses a file, while Peter, Jane and Nicky tear out the single pages they need. Toby is different again, using a chunk of pages as a firm base so that he can silently turn them over.

Source: BBC

Toby on playing Bond:

“I really wasn’t planning on being in a Bond movie. When I heard that they wanted me to do it I was completely shocked because, prior to that, I didn’t really have a track record on movies. But of course working on a Bond film is, for us in the UK, about as big as it gets.” 

Source: Charming Chameleon

“I suppose I always had a hankering to be Bond, I don’t think it was particularly to play him but, obviously, like everyone else I wanted to be him.”

“I didn’t expect to ever play him in a visual sense, but to play him on radio was a great opportunity, because Hugh Whitemore had gone back to the original story and the original character, which I think was an interesting challenge to me, because I had so many preconceptions of what I’d seen - we all know the movies. In fact, until I did this I’d never actually read any of the books, so reading ‘Dr No’ was a real experience for me, because I realised how far it had come from the original conception of Bond. And also I think the radio adaptation is very faithful to the original book. It seems very dated in a way, very post war, with the whole idea of MI6 being still very much a wartime thing. I think nowadays the whole idea of Bond is very postmodern.”

“Yes, it’s very much of its time, and that’s why I found it appealing doing it. I find it’s rather nostalgic in a way. I wasn’t around at that time, but I like the simplicity of it, and I like the fact that you can have these larger-than-life villains and they seem somehow to be of that time. I think now Bond is being turned back as it were. When I played the villain in ‘Die Another Day’, I think that was the climax of camp Bond, where the plot lines were way out-there and the villains were these huge characters that had vast finances and all that stuff. I think the films are probably going backwards now to a rather more simplistic view, going back to the original books in what they’re doing. ‘Casino Royale’ is a very tight piece - it’s not like ‘Octopussy’ where you’ve got these exotic plot lines. It’s very gritty.”

“I found that easier because it was close to the original book and reading the book the description of Bond is quite interesting – there’s one bit where it says he has a rather ‘cruel mouth’ - and we’re going back to something that’s more of that period, someone who is much more military, wasn’t so much the ladies’ man, wasn’t so charming, someone who’s much more direct. It’s basically getting rid of all of the stuff that Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan did of making him this very debonair character. It’s actually peeling all that away to get someone who’s much more linear and who’s on a mission.”

“I think all of the different Bonds have different appeals – Roger Moore was so different from Pierce Brosnan, and Pierce Brosnan is so different from Sean Connery… They all have their own appeal, but I think taking it back to the original character is a very interesting exercise, because so much of what they did with the character has become what Bond is about, whereas actually I don’t think that has anything to do with the original Bond, who was much more of a utilitarian figure. He had a function, and he did it with deadly efficiency, was completely unsentimental and I think he has a wry sense of humour, but he doesn’t have the camp sense of humour that went along with the later Bond films, especially the Roger Moore ones.”

“I think it does liberate it to a certain extent. It also gives people the opportunity to imagine it. The thing with the films is it imagines it for you, whereas the radio is akin to the book where you use your own imagination to put it together. You use people’s voices, which helps get an anchor on things, but you still have to imagine Dr No’s lair, what it looks like, and I like. It’s a great opportunity. And also you can re-imagine all of the characters in it.”

“I think it’s much more faithful than the movie was. There are things about ‘Dr No’ mining guano which is in the book, which seems so strange now – a Bond film about a villain who’s basically making money from mining bird shit, it seems completely ridiculous because one expects them to be much more exotic. Although Dr No is incredibly exotic, with the fact the character’s been rebuilt and had his face altered and his voice is strangulated because of it, , but it’s re-imagined in the movie in a very different way.”

“I read ‘Dr No’ and then I did read ‘Casino Royale’ because I wanted to know what the first Bond was like. I actually fully intend to read more because I fully enjoyed it as a piece of literature. I think it’s so much of its time, but you realise what a good writer he was in that form, and he really invented something with Bond. I really enjoyed them, and I wasn’t expecting to. I had probably a kind of snobbish idea that it was going to be lesser, pulpy fiction, but actually they’re really good reads and very good books.”

“I hope they do some more. I think it’s great for the books to be reinvestigated in radio form. Obviously one can’t go back and do the movies again because they’re there and they’re wonderful, but it is great to re-explore them from the source material and get back to what the books were about. The films, I think, work marvellously as they are, and they do their own thing now and they’ve gone off on their own, but it’s great to go back to the originals and see what wonderful stories they are and what a wonderful character he is.”

“I’d love to do ‘From Russia With Love’, because I just think that’s a great story. But I love all of them, I think all of them are fantastic, and I’m a huge fan of the movies, but that’s my particular favourite.” 

“They made a big enough fuss about Daniel being blond; can you imagine if he was a redhead? It would be a major insurrection!” 

“He’s brilliant, and a great boost to the franchise.’The Bourne Supremacy’ changed the dynamic of that sort of film, so Bond needed something more visceral.”  

Source: ‘Meet the New James Bond’, SFX, 2008

“I’d never read the book and the radio script is very different from the film, so it was fun to do Bond as it was written.”

Source: ‘One Final Question’, Radio Times, 2008

Toby on playing Comedy & The Country Wife:

“I love doing comedy and I’m not really asked that often. This is one of funniest of all the Restoration comedies – people coming in one door, people going out the other… And it’s all about sex!”

“The danger of the part is that he can be a bit sleazy, but I think there’s a joy about him. I think the Carry On films are actually a very good angle on it, someone like Sid James. He was seedy, but there was also a sort of exuberance about him.” 

Source: Charming Chameleon

Toby on his parentage

“I am 39 years old and it is a bit strange when you have to talk about your mother all the time. You end up feeling like some sad, middle-aged guy who has never left home”.

Source: Daily Mail

“I’m immensely proud of my parents and what they achieved. But inevitably you have to drag that around with you for the rest of your life. When I started, people said, ‘Oh, he’s only doing this because of his famous parents.’ But the fact is, no one will give you a job unless you can do it.” 

“Mostly hinder. But it sounds like I’m feeling sorry for myself. In many ways, it was a great help in that it gave me a realistic aspect of the profession. I saw a vast amount of theatre when I was young.”

Source : ‘Toby Stephens - On Being a Bankable Star’, Hello Magazine, 2008

“When I was at school, I discovered fairly early on that I was rubbish academically – I wasn’t going to go to university or anything like that. The one thing that I could do was take other people’s words and give them a voice. That was something I found very liberating. I knew where my talent was and I couldn’t really do anything else… Well, I probably could have, but I’d have been miserable. It wasn’t like running away to the circus – it was something that was very practical because my mum did it day in, day out.” 

“People assume that if you come from one of those acting families, then it’s somehow easier for you. I actually posit that it’s harder because you have all of that to carry as well. I’m extremely proud of them, but it’s taken me a long time to create my own career rather than being seen in relation to them.”

Source: Charming Chameleon

Toby on grooming and fitness:

“I shave with Noxema shaving foam at Boots and a Gillette M3 Power Nitro razor. I also have a Trumper Alum Block that I’m very fond of.” 

“I keep fit by a combination of yoga and Beauchamp Pilates, at Westbourne Studios.”

“I get my hair cut by a dear family friend, Patricia Melbourne who’s cut my hair since I was a child. She works at Knightsbridge.”

“My favourite hair products are - Aveda Men’s Pureformance Shampoo and Bumble and Bumble Sumotech hair putty.”

“My Signature aftershave … I don’t wear one but I have a fetish for colognes; I love anything by Comme des Garcons, especially their incense range, which I collect; mostly I wear Kyoto.” 

“My best grooming tips are, have a massage, preferably a deep tissue one, for at least an hour and a half; and use Liz Earle Naturally Active Men’s Skincare Face and Body Wash - it smells fantastic.” 

Source: London Evening Standard, 2008

“I used to wear off-the-peg designer stuff, but it was only when I tried on my first suit with Timothy Everest that I understood what all the fuss was about.”

“Putting on a suit is like walking into a different life. So much of acting is about putting on the swagger, which gives the impression of confidence and does give you confidence at the same time. I feel in performance mode when dressed properly.”

Source: ‘Timothy Everest, bespoke tailer’, Sunday Times

Toby on Simon Gray

“We bonded during the play Japes and became friends. I was very drawn to him as a personality. We would meet up for dinner once every two weeks and I would speak regularly with him on the phone. We would talk about plays and films we had seen. They were wonderful evenings. The fact I won’t have that any more is devastating. I had wonderful times with him. He was my idea of an ideal Englishman - gentle, kind, literate and open minded. I will miss him immensely.” 

Source: ‘Smoking Diaries Author Dies of Cancer’, Hampstead & Highgate, 2008

Toby on the acting profession:

“I lived there from when I was 5 to 13 and I had to survive because I was already seen as weird, speaking with the accent I had. Some people have an ear for music; I have it for accents.”

“Only really in one area, which is that when you screw up, you’re doing it in front of millions, who all have their own opinions and they’ll quite happily tell you. My friend was in panto in Wales, and a woman told him at a bus stop, in perfect Welsh accent, ‘I saw you in that panto the other day. Path-etic.’ That’s terrifying! But all the rest is fun.”

“My wife’s a New Zealander and her parents have a house there. I’d had a couple of years doing things back-to-back, and wanted to stop for a while. There’s more to life than chasing. I do hunter-gatherer stuff: diving, sea-fishing. Back here, you obsess about paying the bills. I did once think, ‘Just jack it in and live in New Zealand,’ but my friends are here, and I’d crave an old building, a castle, or some old crumbling church.” 

“It’s something I struggle against in film and TV—you have greater latitude in theatre. One thing is the way I speak; villains tend to be posh. A lot of how we see things comes from America, which casts a lot of British baddies. But they’re the most fun to play because they’re complex, and there can be comedy involved. Straight guys get the girl, but they’re dull!”

“Not particularly! In acting terms, I’m good at what I’m not good at in real life. I’m not good at confrontation and hate arguments, but I enjoy acting that.”

“If someone said you can do any costume drama and any character I’d say Rochester because he’s the most complex and rewarding. There weren’t many comparisons drawn with Darcy and ‘Pride and Prejudice’. In my view Darcy was more brooding and sexual, while Rochester is more charismatic. For many women it’s more of a soul thing, not just about a man being sexy. Someone who’ll protect them. And ‘Jane Eyre’ looks after him, which appeals to a lot of women.”

Source: ‘One Final Question’, Radio Times, 2008

“I think we’re living in a particularly vapid moment in history. The fact that you have a TV series to cast Joseph… It’s sort of appallingly ingenious on the part of Cameron Macintosh, but to me it’s just banal. Then again I’m a ‘serious’ actor and I’m probably being an old fart about it! If you ask me, I am disgusted that there are so few serious plays on. It’s not all doom and gloom though. I think the whole £10 a season at the National Theatre is great and it’s getting young people in.” 

“Physically I have looked different from part to part. For example, in Jane Eyre I had all these black hair extensions and they dyed me darker so most people don’t actually recognize me on the street.” 

“I’m not mobbed or anything like that! Rochester was such a great character. He’s a complex man who ostensibly seems to be a rather depressed, grumpy and brooding person, but he’s exposed to be this very damaged, sensitive and vulnerable man.” 

“I genuinely have no idea. If I ever read that actors know what they’re doing, they are either immensely successful movie stars or they are just lying! I could go and do a big movie, or maybe TV, or even do another play. Then again, I could just sit around on my buns for months on end not doing anything!”

Source: Charming Chameleon

“I’m guesting in Robin Hood as Prince John. So I’m going to be a villain.”

Source: Teletext TV Plus

“I’d come out of the stage door and there’d be 50, 60 women who’d flown from all over the world to see me.  I found it disarming and moving that Rochester had struck such a chord.”

“If someone said you can do any costume drama and play any character, I’d say Rochester because he’s the most complex and rewarding.  There were many comparisons drawn with Darcy from Pride and Prejudice.  In my view Darcy was more brooding and sexual.  Rochester is more charismatic.  For many women it’s more of a soul thing not just about a man being sexy.  Someone who’ll protect them.  And Jane Eyre looks after him, which appeals to lots of women.”

Source: ‘Toby Stephens - On Being a Bankable Star’, Hello Magazine, 2008

Toby on meeting his wife, and becoming a father:

“We were at the same drama school. She’s 6 ft 1 in, so it’s quite hard to miss her, but I didn’t get to know her. Fast forward a few years to New York, where we were both up for the same voice-over audition. I said to her that if she got the job, she could take me out, and if I got it, I would treat her.”

“I did.  Then we courted for a long time, which was really nice. I think that’s why it lasted so long—we really got to know each other first. What often happens in those explosive things is that you end up moving in with each other and getting married—and then suddenly saying, who is this person? I don’t like them!”

“You have this massive shift in what is important in your life. I used to spend a lot of time thinking about my future. Now I worry about his future and ours as a family.”

“My wife might have other opinions, but I hope I’m romantic. I’m not so good at the long-term planning things like weekends away, but I’ll be spontaneous and buy her jewellery.”

“Directly afterwards I did two plays and I’d come out of the stage door to 50 or 60 women. A lot of them had flown from all over the world to see me, which I found disarming.”

 Source: ‘I’m a Hopeless Romantic’, Woman Magazine, 2008

“I’m less picky about jobs now because I need to pay for the endless clothes and stuff you buy.”   

“Fatherhood is very exhausting but I absolutely love it.  I found it a bit of a struggle at first and soon realised that I was never going to get a lie in ever again.”  

“You’d try to get him to do something else.  My parents were tough on me and rightly so.  The likelihood is its not going to be easy and that you’re going to fail.”  

Source: Caught in the net, TV Quick

“I have lived in London for about 21 years. I have been north, west and east, but for me when we moved to the East End it was sort of like coming home. I love it there – it just feels right for me. What is great about having a kid is that it stops you being so self-obsessed. I think that it has grounded me. That’s a really good thing because one can lose perspective sometimes. It’s just really nice having somebody else to worry about and not just myself!” 

Source: Charming Chameleon

“At 6ft 1in she’s hard to miss and I thought, ‘What a striking girl’.  But I was in my last year and wrapped up in my world so didn’t get to know her.”

“We made a deal that whoever got the job would take the other out for dinner.  I got the job.  We courted for a long time so really got to know each other.”

“Being a parent, you have this massive shift about what’s important.  Instead of thinking about the future for me, I worry about our future as a family.”

Source: ‘Toby Stephens - On Being a Bankable Star’, Hello Magazine, 2008

OTHERS ON TOBY:

Jodie Whittaker:

“Toby is one of the most generous actors you could ever work with. He’s also hilarious, very intelligent and really well-spoken. I can’t say he’s posh, can I? I wouldn’t want people describing me as `common’ now would I!” 

Source: Manchester Eve News

Toby was out and about during 2008, spotted on January 31st at the Guildhall London, for Morgan Stanley Great Britons, seen here with his beautiful wife, Anna-Louise:

And again at a spectacular gala ball at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane which raised more than £40,000 in aid of a fundraising appeal to buy a robot for a new children’s operating theatre at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. More than 270 people attended the gala ball in July which kickstarted the appeal in earnest – Toby was seen alongside actors John Hannah and Philip Glenister, all present to lend their support.

Later in 2008,  on 5 October, he was the ‘Narrator’ for the Ian Fleming James Bond Gala at the London Palladium celebrating the author’s centenary year, which also served to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation.  Toby appeared on stage alongside Judi Dench, Samantha Bond, Roger Moore, Rosamund Pike, and Daniel Craig.

And also during October he popped up on This Morning on ITV

and the Alan Titchmarsh Show, both to promote ‘Wired’.

Toby was also spotted at a private viewing of Alison Jackson’s ‘Theatre Luninaries’ photographs at the Ivy Club in London on October 29th.  

I believe it is correct to say that Toby is unique in being the only Bond villain to play James Bond - as he does here in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Ian Fleming’s ‘Dr No’ , newly adapted by Hugh Whitemore. 

First broadcast on May 24th 2008 as part of the centenary celebrations, it was recorded at Air-Edel Studios near Baker Street, London, during December 2007. The production company Eon claim Toby was their first choice (ours too!).

Amongst Toby’s co-stars is Fleming’s niece Lucy Fleming, a successful actress in her own right. The villain of the piece was played by David Suchet, and Toby was once more re-united with his ‘Betrayal’ co-star Samuel West.  The play is directed by Martin Jarvis and produced by Rosalind Ayres.

Elisabeth Manoney in the Guardian thought Toby made “a fine Bond, with the right mix of steely charm and hints of a gentler side (“how kind and soft the sea can be,” he sighed as he rowed).”  Whilst Alice Jones for the Independent writes “As Bond, Toby Stephens had smoothness in spades, while David Suchet ratcheted up the drama as a rasping, robotic and gently stammering Dr No.” 

Wesley Britton for The Spy Report, had this to say “Certainly, all listeners will have different reactions to Toby Stephens as James Bond. On one hand, his voice doesn’t have the gravitas of a Connery or Dalton or the elegance of a Moore or Brosnan. He doesn’t convey the world weariness you’d think the character had by this point in his career. Worst of all, especially during the centipede and octopus sequences, the Stephens Bond is downright panicky and high-pitched.  But this Bond is also clearly intelligent, quick-thinking, and human. When he turns down two attempts by Honey to hop in the literal sack with her, he’s a stark contrast to the far more lecherous screen Bonds. Even if he is battling a cartoon adversary, this Bond clearly cares about Honey and Quarrel. He’s no super-spy, but rather an investigator doggedly pursuing his mission. Close to the flavor of the original text, this Bond is an interesting interpretation of Ian Fleming’s British agent if not exactly a classic performance in which Stephens made the role his own.”

Toby was busy in 2008 lending his dulcet tones to various audio books and radio productions. 

‘Flashman and the Dragon’

Following on from his previous outing as Flashy in ‘Flashman on the March’, Toby this time regales the adventures of Flashman this time meeting both the leaders of the Taiping Rebellion and members of the Qing Dynasty who resisted the British march to Peking in 1860 - part of the Second Opium War in this audiobook of George MacDonald Fraser’s ‘Flashman and the Dragon’.  As with the previous Flashman, this audiobook was recorded for HarperCollins Audiobooks.

‘The Good Soldier‘ & ‘The Dark Flower’

Toby reads this Ford Madox Ford’s novel for BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime, and later in 2008 read John Galsworthy’s ‘The Dark Flower’, also for Book at Bedtime.  In each case taking the role of ‘Narrator’.

‘Missing Dates’

Broadcast on 28 February, 2008, on BBC Radio 4, Toby reprises his role in ‘Japes’, as Jason.  Taking place over a 30 year period between 1965 and 1995, Simon Gray’s new play chronicles the family conflicts of husband and wife Michael and Anita, Michael’s brother Jason, their daughter Wendy, her husband Dominic and Wendy’s children.  Appearing here alongside Jasper Britton and Monica Dolan.  It was received with mixed reviews with the most favourable reporting “Toby Stephens and Jasper Britton did what they could with the material, but failed to redeem an unsatisfactory piece of work.”  

‘Let’s Murder Vivaldi’

Also broadcast for BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play, Toby plays Ben in this adaptation of David Mercer’s 1960‘s television  drama concerning two couples who engage in a series of complicated sexual relationships and inevitably suffer as a result.  Though some critics questioned whether it was worth reviving!

‘Coda’

Perhaps Toby’s most poignant reading to date.  Once more for Radio 4, Toby reads Simon Gray’s adjunct to his beautifully crafted ‘Smoking Diaries’.  Poignant in particular as Toby reads Simon’s account of the christening of his godson, Toby’s son Eli.  

“I play Crawford, a fraud investigator for the government. You start off thinking he’s someone else before you realize what he really is. In the process, he becomes involved with Louise who’s a key character at the bank.” 

“What you don’t know is, whether he’s genuinely attracted to her, or if he’s playing her to find out more. Essentially, he’s a good guy, but he desperately needs a way in because—as happens a lot in real fraud investigations—he’s frustrated by how tight the bank is because they don’t want him to discover anything.” 

Source: ‘One Final Question’, Radio Times, 2008

“It’s very timely, with banks being so much in the headlines. Before I thought the script would make great TV, but wasn’t couched in reality. But this guy said 90 per cent of it was true. It’s so rare you hear about major bank frauds because they sit on them. If they lose 5 million pounds they’ll write it off, or customers would pull out their money.”

“When the machine gobbled up my card, I rang my bank and they said I had made some peculiar transactions. When I checked, a guy in Bangkok had taken 10,000 pounds from my account in two weeks.” 

“Before we met I thought the script would make great TV but wasn’t couched in reality.  But this guy said 90% of it was true.  It’s so rare you hear about major bank frauds because they sit on them.  If they lose £5million they’ll write it off, or customers would pull out their money.”

Source: ‘Toby Stephens - On Being a Bankable Star’, Hello Magazine, 2008

“Yes, I was on holiday in New Zealand two years ago when I discovered 10,000 pounds had been taken out of my account by a guy in Bangkok. It had started with small amounts and ended up at 500 pounds a day. People tell you when it happens you feel like you’ve been abused, and you really do feel that.”

“It was really interesting because I kind of went in to the production thinking, ‘It’s a drama script, based on fantasy,’ but that stuff really goes on. The head of the Fraud Office actually helped the writer, so all the details are really spot on.” 

“It’s a really interesting drama for now because in any time of financial downturn, one becomes very interested in this sort of thing.”

“I think the viewer will be intrigued as to whether he’s pursuing the investigation because he wants to solve it, or because of his interest in Louise. He’s quite a mysterious character and you don’t know what his motives are.”

“I really enjoyed doing something modern. I’ve done a lot of costume drama and it was nice not to have to work so hard. Because I could relax a little bit - for me it was like a bit of a sabbatical.” 

“It’s a really interesting drama for now because in any time of financial downturn, one becomes very interested in this sort of thing.  Louise is also just a regular woman and audiences will really warm to her.”

[On having to retake a chase scene 50 times in Wired:] “By the end of it, I actually couldn’t walk.”

Source: ‘Period Man Turns Modern Man’, Teletext TV Plus, 2008

“Yes, I met a real-life officer thinking this is a TV script which is absurd—but this guy said 90 per cent of it was true and could happen.” 

“I was on holiday in New Zealand two years ago when I discovered 10,000 pounds had been taken out of my account by a guy in Bangkok. It had started with small amounts and ended up at 500 pounds a day. People tell you when it happens you feel like you’ve been abused, and you really do feel that.”

Source: ‘I’m a Hopeless Romantic’, Woman Magazine, 2008

“It’s great!  I’m usually riding a horse, wearing britches or twiddling my moustache and trying to kill people!  Crawford is none of those things.  He’s neither good nor bad;  just a regular, ambitious guy trying to make a name for himself.  He gets a whiff of the crime and through his investigation, finds himself becoming emotionally involved with Louise.  I think he sees this woman who’s being harassed and really feels for her.  He certainly crosses the line.  It’s not a traditional romance, that’s for sure”.

Source: ‘Credit crunchers’, Olly Grant, TV Times

“Crawford is a fraud investigator who has a tip-off from someone in the bank.  He becomes romantically involved with Louise, but it’s not clear whether that’s because he wants to nail the fraudsters or he really does like her.  Crawford’s out there trying to find fraudsters, and I really enjoyed playing him.  I’m constantly in breeches on a  horse somewhere so for me to play a regular nine to five guy was great.”

Source: TV & Satellite Week

“When I first broached this with the man at the SFO who advised Kate Brooke, I presumed that, because this was a TV drama, Crawford’s character was a fictional fantasy. But the man at the SFO said, “No. What happens in Wired is very much couched in reality.” The SFO have to tap the phones of disgruntled workers and find weak links because the banks themselves aren’t going to tell them anything unless it’s a really serious issue. The banks apparently write off millions of pounds each year to fraud, and sweep it under the carpet because the adverse publicity would be even more costly. So the SFO are constantly being stonewalled, which is why they have to sniff around the drinking holes of the City, just like Crawford’s doing when he first meets Louise.’”

“I had a terrifying experience while I was away in New Zealand. I went to the hole in the wall and it refused me money. I rang up my bank and said, “What’s going on here?” and it turned out that a man in Bangkok had stolen £10,000 from my account. I knew I could claw it back somehow, but it kind of pressed a button in my subconscious; I felt unnerved and paranoid. In this computer age, who’s actually in control of our money?” 

“I’m not at the stage of hiding my savings under the mattress, but I might change. Who knows – maybe people will think differently about their bank after watching Wired.’ 

Source: Daily Telegraph

“Crawford doesn’t know what’s going on and how Louise is implicated, but he knows that she is somehow.  When I read the script I thought it was a made for TV fantasy.  Then I met this guy from the fraud squad while doing my research and he said this stuff happens.  Apparently banks don’t want the public to know it goes on.  They’re afraid their customers will lose confidence in them, so they write off huge amounts.”

“I rang my bank immediately and £10,000 had been taken from my account.  I was horrified that someone in Bangkok was spending my money on God knows what.”

“It was great to be in something that didn’t involve wearing breeches or riding a horse”

Source: TV Choice

“I haven’t done this sort of stuff before, and it was wonderful to play someone who wasn’t in britches and on a horse.”

“Crawford doesn’t really know what’s going on but he does know that Louise is somehow involved.  He’s attracted to her too.  So you’re never really sure if he’s pursing the case with gusto because he’s ambitious or because of Louise.”

“Apparently this stuff happens but banks don’t want their customers to know about it because they would lose confidence in them.  So the banks write off huge amounts of money.”

“I called the bank and learnt that some guy in Bangkok has helped himself to £10,000 from my account.  I was filled with horror that someone was spending my money on God knows what.”

Source: Caught in the net, TV Quick

“I tried to get some money out of a cash machine and I couldn’t so I rang up my bank and they said they’d stopped my card as GBP 10,000 had been taken out in Bangkok in the previous two weeks.  It was a very alarming thing to happen but fortunately I did get the money back. The first thing I asked the guy was, ‘What about my money?’ “

Source: ‘Day & Night’, Daily Express

During the early part of 2008, filming began in Manchester, Liverpool and London for a new ITV 3-part drama series, “Wired” which saw Toby starring alongside Jodie Whittaker, Laurence Fox, Charlie Brooks and Riz Ahmed.  Written by Kate Brooke, “Wired” is a thriller   which exposes high-level bank fraud.  Toby plays Crawford Hill, and undercover cop working with the City of London’s fraud squad.  The 3 parter revolves around an internet bank theft involving single mum Louise who is given a promotion at ZBG Banking and who little suspects that she has been targeted by fraudsters plotting to steal £250 million from her employers.

There was much interest in the press prior to the airing of this drama series, largely because of its subject, and a deluge of articles appeared.  The Glasgow Daily record reported “Crawford, played with big hair and bigger swagger by Toby Stephens, during a rare escape from period dramas, and despite his smouldering good looks, Toby Stephens looks vaguely ill-at-ease in modern dress”.  The Telegraph reported “Former Bond villain Toby Stephens provided the dishy glamour as DCI Crawford Hill, a leather jacket-wearing fraud investigator.”  The Metro went on to say “Laurence Fox and Toby Stephens neatly cast against type - Fox as a baddie, Stephens as a police officer - Wired looks set to buck the trend and keep interest rates rising as the house of cards comes tumbling down.”

Scotland on Sunday writes “Louise, the middle-manager, is played by Jodie Whittaker, and Laurence Fox is the crook who was previously sacked from the bank for being “the son of the son of… he wanted to get rich quick without putting in the hours”. He’s the son of James Fox, of course, and Robert Stephens’ laddie Toby is the gentlemanly type fast becoming Louise’s only ally, but he’s in fact a fraud squad detective. “

The Daily Journal weren’t particularly flattering in their appraisal, “Stephens, a very talented actor otherwise, mainly swans about trying to be the white knight to a damsel with clearly more important things on her mind.”

It received mixed reviews, but was by large generally liked.

Toby makes it into ‘Who’s Who’! :

“Dame Maggie Smith’s son, Toby Stephens, establishes a name for himself in the 2007 almanac.

He is best known for his role as the James Bond bad guy Gustav Graves in Die Another Day, and recently appeared as Mr Rochester in a BBC version of Jane Eyre”

A mention from a school acquaintance:

“I’d just finished watching the last episode of ‘Cambridge Spies’ this afternoon before setting off. When the subject came up over dinner she (the guy’s mother) told me that she used to know Kim Philby ‘s wife. In the mini-series Philby is played by Toby Stephens, apparently an acquaintance of mine back in the days when I was learning multiplication. I do remember a kiddy party held at his mother’s home in Chelsea, because when my own mother picked me up she got lost and we ended up on the Robin Hood roundabout near Kingston. Maggie Smith lived just off the west end of King’s Road and we lived at its inception next to St Peter’s Church in Eaton Square. Both SW1. Getting home should have been a doddle.”

From the Opening Night of ‘The Country Wife’: 

“When the curtain goes up in the new West End production of ‘The Country Wife’, Toby Stephens, as a priapic young stud named Horner, is standing alone with his back to the audience grinning and stark naked.  At First Night this week, I was sitting just in front of his mother, actress Maggie Smith. ‘Were you expecting that?’ a companion whispered, receiving in reply a shocked ‘No!’”

Anna Louise on pregnancy:

“Oh I’m not too worried about that – I’m still going out, despite being eight months pregnant.  I’m very nervous as it’s my first child but I’ve actually had a very easy pregnancy. I’m told it gets harder though. I’m just not really thinking about the birth!”  

Source: Daily express March 22 2007

“There were things about playing Hamlet that can never be replaced by any other part.”

“I was in New York playing Hippolytus in ‘Phaedre’, and I was rather heavy at the time. The New York Times wrote: “Toby Stephens’ Hippolytus needs to get on the Stairmaster.”’

“We have the best theatre in the world. We cover every area, we’re innovative and we have the best writing, past and present, as well as these great organs like the National and the Royal Court. It’s sad that it’s not invested in as it could be. Perhaps the fact we have to struggle is one of the things that make us good, though I wish we didn’t have to struggle so hard - American acting doesn’t have the same depth - only a tiny fraction of the work there is in theatre. However, a lot of British actors are now going straight into TV and doing Hollyoaks, and that’s very sad.”

His inspiration:  “Paul Scofield. Because he has enormous soul and depth, as well as being incredibly humorous.”

His big break:  “Being cast as Coriolanus at the RSC aged 24. I was very young for it. The director David Thacker and Adrian Noble, who ran the RSC, took a huge gamble.”

His favourite play: “Macbeth.  It’s beautifully wrought and packs an enormous punch.”

His favourite theatre: “The Swan in Stratford. It’s a very beautiful theatre and you feel very close to the audience. You can pitch a performance anywhere between very intimate and very full-on.”

Source: ‘Why Britannia still rules the stage’, Sunday June 10 2007, The Observer 

On Reality TV: “I think if you discuss theatre or expose its workings or try to talk about it it’s boring,” he tells us at the launch of the West End production of “The Country Wife”. So he won’t appear in one? “If I do, I’ll wonder what went wrong.” We will remember that……………

Source: Times, 2007

“I think we’re living in a particularly vapid moment in history. The fact that you have a TV series to cast Joseph… It’s sort of appallingly ingenious on the part of Cameron Macintosh, but to me it’s just banal. Then again I’m a ‘serious’ actor and I’m probably being an old fart about it! If you ask me, I am disgusted that there are so few serious plays on. It’s not all doom and gloom though. I think the whole £10 a season at the National Theatre is great and it’s getting young people in.” 

Source: ‘Charming chameleon’, Angel & North, 2007 

On playing Bond: “I didn’t expect to ever play him in a visual sense, but to play him on radio was a great opportunity, because Hugh Whitemore had gone back to the original story and the original character, which I think was an interesting challenge to me, because I had so many preconceptions of what I’d seen – we all know the movies. In fact, until I did this I’d never actually read any of the books, so reading Dr No was a real experience for me, because I realised how far it had come from the original conception of Bond. And also I think the radio adaptation is very faithful to the original book. It seems very dated in a way, very post war, with the whole idea of MI6 being still very much a wartime thing. I think nowadays the whole idea of Bond is very postmodern.” 

Source: ‘Meet the New James Bond’, SFX, 2007

“I really wasn’t planning on being in a Bond movie. When I heard that they wanted me to do it I was completely shocked because, prior to that, I didn’t really have a track record on movies. But of course working on a Bond film is, for us in the UK, about as big as it gets.” 

Source: ‘Charming Chameleon’, Angel & North, 2007

“It was a blip. Great fun, but I avoided roles like that after. I didn’t want to end up as he Brit who always plays the Hollywood baddie.” 

Source: ‘Mr. Rochester Takes a Bow’, The Times, 2007

“I don’t know where that came from. I mean, Christ, there was enough fuss about Craig being blond. Can you imagine if they’d given it to a ginger? There’d be assassination plots.”

Source: ‘Prodigal Son’, Guardian, May 2007

On being a Dad: “What is great about having a kid is that it stops you being so self-obsessed. I think that it has grounded me. That’s a really good thing because one can lose perspective sometimes. It’s just really nice having somebody else to worry about and not just myself!” 

Source: ‘Charming Chameleon’, Angel & North, 2007

“I have reached a point in my life where I need to start worrying about someone other than myself. It’s so wonderful having this person that you can say: ‘I care more about you than I do about anything else, including my career.’” 

Source: ‘Restoring His Humour’, London Evening Standard, 2007

“I think I’ll make him go through every other option before getting into this business. My parents  tried to make sure that it was what I wanted to do. When you’ve been in the profession you wouldn’t wish it on anyone. It is incredibly creative, the hours are fantastic, but it is becoming such a hard place to be in.” 

“After months of negotiations we came up with Elijah or Eli. It became an obsession. We were in a maternity-wear shop in LA and they had a book of boys’ names, and while my wife was trying on jeans I was going: ‘Darling, what do you think of Orion?’ I lost any sense of direction.” 

Source: ‘Mr. Rochester Takes His Bow’, The Times, 2007

On living in London: “I have lived in London for about 21 years. I have been north, west and east, but for me when we moved to the East End it was sort of like coming home. I love it there – it just feels right for me.” 

On fandom: “I’m not mobbed or anything like that! Rochester was such a great character. He’s a complex man who ostensibly seems to be a rather depressed, grumpy and brooding person, but he’s exposed to be this very damaged, sensitive and vulnerable man.” 

“Physically I have looked different from part to part. For example, in Jane Eyre I had all these black hair extensions and they dyed me darker so most people don’t actually recognize me on the street.” 

On his parentage: “People assume that if you come from one of those acting families, then it’s somehow easier for you… . I actually posit that it’s harder because you have all of that to carry as well. I’m extremely proud of them, but it’s taken me a long time to create my own career rather than being seen in relation to them.” 

Source: ‘Charming Chameleon’, Angel & North, 2007

“There was a time when I was obsessed with my father  and that wasn’t healthy because he wasn’t around for a lot of the time… . He had an enormously successful career but he also did himself out of a lot of work, which isn’t the case for me any more. Just recently, in terms of my work, I think I can finally stand independently of my father.” 

Source: ‘Restoring His Humour’, London Evening Standard, 2007

“It’s such a tricky thing. I’m blown away by what she does so I just don’t know whether I have the chops. And to me above everything she’s my mother. I really value that intimacy. I’m immensely proud to be her son, but at the same time I don’t want to be defined purely by that. It took a huge effort to get out of the gravity of that orbit. I’d learn so much, but another part of me is frightened of it.” 

“My parents were actually very private people. It was not a house with actors coming and going like in a Noël Coward play. But I did see a lot of theatre when I was a child and that must have seeped into me. By the time I was about 15 I’d seen a huge amount of Shakespeare, Ibsen and Chekhov.” 

Source: ‘Mr. Rochester Takes His Bow’, The Times, 2007

“They tried quite hard to make sure it was what I wanted to do. It wasn’t, ‘Oh great, he’s going into the biz as well.’ It was more, ‘If this really is what you want to do, why? How many plays have you actually seen?” 

“I find it easier now. I’m as objective as I’ll ever be and can appreciate what mum is doing. I can look with technical admiration at how she does something, like going from a big laugh to deep pain in a moment. But, when I was young, it was embarrassing, to be honest. She’d walk on and I’d be like, ‘Oh God, what’s she doing? Why’s she dressed like that? And, oh God, she’s got to kiss that man.’ I mean, I remember going to see Oedipus. And that completely f***ed my head up.” 

Source: ‘Prodigal Son’, The Guardian, May 2007

On his Mum: “She is incredibly, incredibly pleased. I know the way people see her it might seem odd, but she is very good. And parenthood is terribly moving for me. Having lost both my father and stepfather, our family was dwindling, so it is really lovely to see it expand.”

Source: ‘Mr. Rochester Takes His Bow’, The Times, 2007

“She can be tricky. She’s a very bright, very strong person. By and large, she gets away with it in the profession, because people know she’s as hard on herself as anyone else. If she didn’t deliver, people would be like, ‘Do you mind?’ But she can be … I grew up around it. It’s incredibly entertaining and sometimes quite nasty to be on the end of it. You just have to appreciate the wit behind it. I remember when she started to do it with my wife and my wife said, ‘She was really rude to me.’ And I said, ‘Welcome to the family, you’ve been embraced into the bosom.’” 

Source: ‘Prodigal Son’, The Guardian, May 2007

On being an actor:  “I find it sad that one’s range is not fully used. You become a totem for some sort of aspect, whether it’s class or a look, which is boring. I’m known as the one who always plays the villain, that’s what I get even though I’ve done a lot of other things.”

Source: ‘Mr. Rochester Takes His Bow’, The Times, 2007

“I genuinely have no idea. If I ever read that actors know what they’re doing, they are either immensely successful movie stars or they are just lying! I could go and do a big movie, or maybe TV, or even do another play. Then again, I could just sit around on my buns for months on end not doing anything!” 

“When I was at school, I discovered fairly early on that I was rubbish academically –I wasn’t going to go to university or anything like that. The one thing that I could do was take other people’s words and give them a voice. That was something I found very liberating. I knew where my talent was and I couldn’t really do anything else… Well, I probably could have, but I’d have been miserable. It wasn’t like running away to the circus – it was something that was very practical because my mum did it day in, day out.” 

Source: ‘Charming Chamelon’, Angel & North, 2007

“I never believe actors in interviews who, when they’re asked what they’re doing next, reel off a whole bunch of things. They must be lying because I never know if anything is coming next… . I have moments when I loathe what I do, generally when I’m not doing it. I get very nervous and I lose confidence and wonder why the hell I’m just sitting around watching daytime TV.” 

“I don’t get asked to do comedy very often. I think my upbringing doesn’t help: the posh voice and looks means I’m often pigeonholed as a serious actor. To do straight-out comedy really liberates a side of me that people don’t often see.” 

Source: ‘Restoring His Humour’, London Evening Standard, 2007

“Parts of me would love to make huge movies and huge amounts of money. But these days so much is about what was the last thing you were in, and I don’t have that kind of track record. I’m sure if I chiselled away I’d get somewhere but I didn’t want to go down that route. Besides, Hollywood can be soulless.” 

“You meet the producers, then the network, then more suits. Brits are just cheap labour over there. But it can work out. Matthew Rhys was at the Royal Shakespeare Company with me and he’s fantastic in Brothers and Sisters. Hugh Laurie completely reinvented himself. I’d give my right arm to be in something like The Sopranos, but another part of me loves what I do here.” 

Source: ‘Mr. Rochester Takes His Bow’, The Times, 2007

“The longer I’m in this job, the more I realise how lucky I am because it’s getting harder. It just seems to be diminishing. There seem to be no films at all and, in theatre, it’s harder and harder to get audiences in.” 

Source: ‘Prodigal Son’, The Guardian, May 2007

“I took five months off to go to New Zealand with my wife. When I came back I stupidly assumed I’d get offers and there was complete silence,. For a while things looked bad. Then Betrayal at the Donmar came up, then this. Relief all round. My agent said, ‘Please don’t do that again.’ ” 

Source: ‘Mr Rochester takes his bow’, Bruce Dessau, 

“Physically I have looked different from part to part. For example, in Jane Eyre I had all these black hair extensions and they dyed me darker so most people don’t actually recognize me on the street.  I’m not mobbed or anything like that! Rochester was such a great character. He’s a complex man who ostensibly seems to be a rather depressed, grumpy and brooding person, but he’s exposed to be this very damaged, sensitive and vulnerable man.” 

Source: ‘Charming Chameleon’, Angel & North,  Sept 2007

On alcohol:  “I think I’ve dealt with it. It’s one of those things. I had his alcoholism. I have it. Luckily, I got out of it by the time I was 30. I’d watched Robert die from it but, stupidly, carried on drinking. I wish I could say it was some kind of psychological torture. But it’s purely a physical need. I am designed to cope with huge quantities of alcohol and to want more. As soon as I have some, I want more. And my life is just much easier not having any, although I miss it sometimes.”

“This whole romantic myth of Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton gliding through Hamlet on two bottles of vodka. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work. How fucking marvellous would they have been without it?”

“I think she may have guessed. She’d been through it all with Robert. I’ve talked to her about it since and she’s been incredibly supportive.”

Source: ‘Prodigal Son’, The Guardian, May 2007

Toby was seen out and about during 2007 for Opening Night parties and most notably looking dashing at the TRIC Awards (Television & Radio Industries Club) at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on March 6 - the first public appearance since the airing of ‘Jane Eyre’ on BBC1.

He was also spotted at the ‘One Day’ Party:

And of course at the opening night party for ‘Betrayal’ at the Donmar in June shown here with Dervla Kirwan and Sam West:

And once more at the opening night for ‘The Country Wife’ in September - courtesy of The Stage: