Why life’s A jolly Holliday for the new Brit pack
As Ms Grainger grips fans in The Capture, how she`s at the centre of a gilded set of stars — who are ALL dating each other
AS aMBiTiouS Di Rachel Carey in The Capture, actress Holliday Grainger is every inch the icy, ambitious loner, attempting to unravel a gigantic conspiracy involving the police and intelligence agencies.
However in real life, she’s an altogether more gregarious figure. indeed, ‘Jolly Holliday’, 31, is at the centre of a new ‘Brit pack’ of talented and successful actors who socialise together, date each other and are cast opposite each other in blue-chip TV and film projects.
Pictured together at private parties, movie events and fashion dos, these are the young stars of dramas such as The Crown, Bodyguard and Victoria.
Holliday, an actress since she was a child, shrugged: ‘Everyone knows everyone. it’s nice to think there’s a group of actors who are known to be working and successful.’
Here’s who’s who in her circle of friends and how they all know each other...
BOYFRIEND WHO GIVES HER ROMANTIC STONES
HolliDay lives in North london with boyfriend Harry Treadaway, an actor who played Dr Frankenstein in the TV series Penny Dreadful. They have been dating since 2015 and were first seen together at a Burberry fashion show in 2016.
Harry, 35, was in the TV series Mr Mercedes and has just been filming the forthcoming Star Trek: Picard series.
Holliday tries not to talk about him in interviews, but did once say they enjoy spa weekends away and that he collects heart shaped pebbles for her.
LOVER’S TWIN IS IN FRIENDS CIRCLE TOO
HaRRy’S twin brother luke is also an actor and was in the film a Street Cat Named Bob and TV series Fortitude. He is married to actress Ruta Gedmintas, who was in The Borgias TV mini-series in 2011 alongside Holliday, and is one of her closest friends. Ruta was also in horror series The Strain and is in the forthcoming megabudget BBC TV adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials.
THE PAL WHO WAS A DICKENS RIVAL
HolliDay has been friends with Vanessa Kirby, who played Princess Margaret in The Crown, for around five years. awkwardly, in 2011 they both played Estella in rival versions of Great Expectations — Holliday in a movie, and Vanessa in a BBC threeparter. Vanessa’s co- star as Pip was Douglas Booth, another friend of Holliday.
Vanessa, 31, and Holliday have never worked together but Vanessa’s boyfriend of three years, Callum Turner, 29, is appearing opposite Holliday in The Capture as soldier Shaun Emery. He knows Holliday as both appeared in The Borgias. This summer Vanessa was among a group who went to Glastonbury with Holliday. Not that they don’t enjoy more sophisticated outings. They sat together on the front row of the Mulberry autumn/ Winter show in london Fashion Week in 2013.
THE MATE SHE HAD TO BULLY
HolliDay was among the guests at lily James’s 30th birthday party this spring which started off at Mark’s Club in Mayfair and ended up at The Box in Soho, finally finishing at 5am.
Holliday and boyfriend Harry are close to lily, the star of Downton abbey and Cinderella, and her boyfriend Matt Smith, 36, who is best known for his roles as Doctor Who and Prince Philip in The Crown.
Holliday was one of the wicked stepsisters to lily’s Cinderella in the 2015 film and said that she found it particularly hard to ‘bully’ her friend for the role.
HITTING THE BIG TIME WITH DR WHO GIRL
DoCToR Who and Victoria star Jenna Coleman became close to Holliday when their careers took off at around the same time.
Jenna, 33, was made the Doctor’s assistant in 2012, while Holliday was cast opposite Robert Pattinson in Bel ami in the same year. in 2015 they had a fun day out at the polo together (and Jenna was supposed to have flirted with Prince Harry under a blanket).
in 2016, both ladies were guests of mutual friend and actress Perdita Weeks at her 30th birthday party in Vauxhall, South london.
Jenna’s boyfriend is Tom Hughes, 36, who she fell for in 2016 when he played Prince albert to her Queen Victoria.
CHATTERLEY IS STILL MATEY WITH MELLORS
HolliDay’S co-star in the rather tame adaptation of lady Chatterley’s lover in 2015, was Richard Madden, who played gamekeeper
oliver Mellors. Bodyguard star Richard, 33, was also the prince in Cinderella with her that year. He seems to have got to know Holliday via her friendship with Jenna Coleman, who was his girlfriend from 2012 to 2015.
Richard played Robb Stark in Game of Thrones with Holliday’s next pair of pals...
SHE’S THRONE HER LOT IN WITH KIT AND ROSE
SHE is friends with Kit Harington and Rose Leslie via her boyfriend Harry, and both attended their wedding in June last year.
Rose, 32, is one of a number of Downton Abbey graduates in the friendship group, along with Lily James and Jessica Brown Findlay.
She played a housemaid in the first series in 2011 before being cast as ygritte in GoT. In 2014 Rose appeared in the film Honeymoon opposite Harry. Kit, who is also 32, complained: ‘She spends half the movie snogging my friend Harry Treadaway. About five minutes in, I had to close my eyes because I couldn’t stand it.’
RIOT OF A TIME AT THE FESTIVALS
HAnDSoME actor Douglas Booth has been friends with Holliday and Harry since 2013 — quite possibly because he was dating her pal Vanessa Kirby at the time.
After he and Vanessa broke up the following year, he enjoyed a long weekend at the Wilderness Festival with Holliday, Harry and actress Gemma Chan.
It was in 2014 that Douglas, 27, and Holliday both appeared in film The Riot Club. Holliday said of the making of Riot Club: ‘It doesn’t feel like work when you’re with people you know. There’d be that kind of communal atmosphere outside the trailers. Someone would have their speaker box playing and it would turn into a mini rave, just all of us messing around.’ Douglas and Harry are friends, too, going to fashion events in the capital such as the one run by Club Monaco in 2015. Douglas was among the group of friends who went with Holliday and Harry to Glastonbury this year, as shown in numerous pictures on social media. In 2016, he reportedly had a brief dalliance with actress Ellie Bamber — who went on to date yet another of the circle, Richard Madden. Like Holliday and Harry, Douglas is a Burberry ambassador. All three have appeared in ads for the famous brand.
PAL GEMMA IS IN VOGUE
ACTRESS Gemma Chan — one of the 15 ‘ Forces for Change’ chosen for the cover of Vogue by the Duchess of Sussex — is also part of Holliday’s circle of friends. Gemma, 36, also went to Glastonbury with Douglas Booth, her new boyfriend Dominic Cooper, 41, who was in Mamma Mia Here We Go Again with Lily James, Holliday and Harry this summer. Gemma also starred in TV’s Humans and the film Crazy Rich Asians.
ACTING WITH HUBBY OF POLO PAL LAURA
ACTRESS Laura Haddock, 34, plays barrister Hannah Roberts in The Capture — but she and Holliday go back further than that.
In 2014 they spent a day together at the polo, just as Holliday was acting opposite Laura’s husband Sam Claflin in The Riot Club. They also were on very friendly terms at a Bafta party in 2015.
In 2017, Sam, 33, appeared in a film adaptation of My Cousin Rachel which also starred Holliday. He is most famous for his role in The Hunger Games films.
Sadly, Laura and Sam, who have two children, announced this summer that they have split up.
AND ANOTHER LINK WITH DOWNTON...
HoLLIDAy has been friends with Downton Abbey star Jessica Brown Findlay, who plays Lady Sybil Crawley, since at least 2014.
Jessica, 30, is also pals with Vanessa Kirby, who was turned down for the role of Lavinia in Downton.
Jessica was in The Riot Club with Holliday, Sam and Douglas.
Last year, she and Lily James appeared together in the film The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society.