What I Watched: Period Drama Boyfriends

If you are a dedicated watcher of British film and television, I guarantee that you know who Samuel West is, even if you don’t recognize the name. The man has an impressively extensive and diverse filmography, to put it lightly. Indeed, it took years of “wait, I think I’ve seen that guy before” before it finally dawned on me that West was Period Drama Boyfriend^TM material. In that regard, he had a couple of strikes against him, the most obvious of which is the fact that, whereas most of my PDBs have dark hair and blue (or green) eyes, West is a brown-eyed blond. The second is the fact that, as he himself observed in a 2020 interview, he has mostly played “evil members of the white establishment or Victorian perverts” on screen – which isn’t exactly promising in terms of PDB status (though I do get a kick out of this delightfully mordant summing up his acting resume). But I wouldn’t be writing this post (probably) if that was the whole story. As it happens, West has played plenty of perfectly respectable non-perverts, starting with his breakout role as Leonard Bast in Howards End, a movie that has hurt my feelings almost as much as Atonement. Actually, come to think of it, West’s ability to play anti-heroes and villains as well as (if not better) than ‘good guys’ is something he shares with all my PDBs (as you will see in due course) … which probably means something. I’m not sure I want to speculate on what that might be 😉

Anyway, let’s take a look at Sam West.

Birthday: June 19 (Gemini)

Middle name(s): Alexander Joseph

Posh?: Not in the proper English sense, though his parents are famous (actors Prunella Scales and Timothy West) and he was educated at public school and Oxford, where he studied literature. Fun fact: he is also a passionate philatelist and birdwatcher. We love a man with nerdy hobbies.

Height: 6’0

Favourite period drama: All Creatures Great And Small is probably what tipped the balance for me as far as West’s potential as a PDB. If this is not a case of “tell me you’re a middle-aged woman without telling me you’re a middle-aged woman”, I don’t know what is. As soon as I started watching ACGAS – the cozy, heart-warming series to top them all – I was more or less immediately smitten with Siegfried Farnon, tweed-wearing grumpy “dad” with a not-so-hidden heart of gold. The show is a visual delight (and no, I am not just talking about eye candy here) and the best kind of soothing escapist fare for our troubled times. In every episode, there are misunderstandings, scrapes, and at least one cow in distress, but nothing truly terrible ever happens, and every character is lovable in his or her own way. The only way ACGAS could be better is if, in between farm visits, Siegfried, James and the rest of the gang solved a cozy mystery or two.

I would be remiss not to add an honourable mention in this category: Cambridge Spies, a 2004 miniseries ostensibly about the famous ring of British spies who betrayed their country to the Soviets from the 1930s through the 1950s. I say ostensibly, because this series is extremely unserious about history – “inspired by actual events” would be putting it generously. That being said, it is an extremely entertaining drama featuring top notch acting from a ridiculously attractive cast that includes Toby Stephens, Rupert Penry Jones, and Tom Hollander in their respective youthful primes (plus a bunch of other faces you will definitely recognize if you’re a fan of British TV). West plays a charming (if you forget the traitory part) Anthony Blunt. I am not the only fan of his performance; in 2019, the producers of The Crown asked him to reprise the role in season 3 of that show, which I think is kind of neat.

Sexiest period drama role: This may be a slightly controversial opinion, but I think West’s Mr. Elliott in Persuasion (1995) is sexy AF – an Austen bad boy you almost want to root for. He looks fantastic in Regency costume, and it’s one of the rare roles where we get to appreciate his glorious curls.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t tell you that this version of Persuasion is the absolute best, and worth immediately tracking down if you have not already seen it. (And I say this as someone who remains pretty devoted to Rupert Penry Jones as Captain Wentworth in the 2007 adaptation.) You can find it on YouTube, if your streaming apps (like mine) don’t have it.

Side note: if you’re an Austenite, you might enjoying looking up on YouTube the 2022 Jane Austen House Annual Carpenter Lecture on YouTube, in which West co-chairs a panel discussion about the best Austen film adaptations — I thought it was excellent.

Also, if you go down the YouTube rabbit hole a little bit further, you might also come across a fairly obscure two-part WWII-era comedy-drama set on a RAF base called Over Here, in which West played a cocky, sarcastic, motorcycle-riding, leather-jacket wearing squadron leader. In case that’s more your speed than breeches and cravats (though why not both, I say) …

Austen adaptations: see above. Back in the 2000s, I think West could have been an interesting Mr. Knightley. (As a frame of reference, my fave Knightley is Jonny Lee Miller.)

Favourite contemporary role: Most of the contemporary roles I’ve seen West play are of the “evil white establishment dude” variety, and while he does that well, I wouldn’t call any of them ‘favourite’.

Least romantic role: Peter Judd in Slow Horses. Not a period drama, but a must-watch nonetheless – one of the best shows currently streaming. (The books are brilliant as well.) The character was – allegedly! – based on a certain floppy-haired former UK president, enough said. West plays him with relish, but ew. Watching ACGAS and Slow Horses back-to-back gave me some serious whiplash, let me tell you.

Murder mystery cameos: So many! He’s been in the Inspector Alleyn Mysteries (series 1, episode 5), Foyle’s War (series 2, episode 3), The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (series 5, episode 3), Midsomer Murders TWICE (series 10, episode 2 and series 19, episode 5 — the latter features a modern day Austen-centric plot); Agatha Christie’s Poirot ( the David Suchet version of Murder on the Orient Express), and Death in Paradise (series 9, episode 1). He’s always one of the suspects, though not always the killer, and it’s rather fun to try to guess if he’ll turn out to be the bad guy or not. Watch out for Waking the Dead (series 2, episodes 1-2), in which he plays a disturbingly charismatic convicted serial killer (that isn’t a spoiler, by the way) who terrorizes Jane Bennett from the 1995 Pride & Prejudice series — that one is definitely NOT cozy mystery territory.

Watch at your own risk: Hyde Park on Hudson is one of those movies that is weird enough to make you wonder how it got greenlit, but not weird enough to be campy good. It’s about the time that King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) went to visit President Franklin Roosevelt at his rural retreat, the eponymous Hyde Park on Hudson, to try to shore up British-American relations on the eve of WWII. I can’t speak to the historical accuracy of the movie, but it doesn’t really matter; it’s probably best approached as a story about a fish-out-of-water couple trying to survive an awkward house party. That almost makes it sound appealing, but it’s mostly just odd. West plays the king and Olivia Coleman plays his wife, which was jarring enough in itself since I had previously watched The Crown (which had Coleman as the other Queen Elizabeth and West as the aforementioned traitorous Blunt), but then BILL MURRAY plays FDR and that took me all the way out.

Alright, darlings, till next time: happy period drama watching!