Riddle of missing Foyle’s War star
Actress found safe and well after 24-hour police search
FOYLE’S War star Honeysuckle Weeks was found last night following a daylong police search after the troubled actress vanished.
Officers put out a desperate plea for Miss Weeks – who played driver Samantha Stewart in the wartime drama – after relatives could not get hold of her.
But last night her sister Perdita Weeks, 30, signalled the search was over, tweeting: ‘Safe and sound thank you all xxxx.’
Miss Weeks’ whereabouts during the 24 hours she was missing remained a mystery last night.
Friends and family had become concerned about her wellbeing before she vanished. She had been receiving psychiatric care in recent weeks and her behaviour is thought to have become increasingly erratic.
The married mother of one was last seen in Chichester, West Sussex, late on Thursday evening.
The 36-year-old’s disappearance came months after she was ordered to wear an electronic tag for speeding with a child in her car while already banned from driving.
Last night, police confirmed Miss Weeks had been found and was with officers.
Earlier, Detective Sergeant Kate Witt, from Sussex Police, had said: ‘We are concerned about Miss Weeks as her recent behaviour has worried family and friends and she has expressed to them that she is feeling anxious.
‘Although she travels around a lot and has links in London and family in Wiltshire, it is unlike her not to be in touch with family.
‘If you read this, Honeysuckle, please get in touch to let us know you are OK.’
The actress – who was educated at the elite Roedean School in Brighton and studied English at Oxford – had recently returned to Britain after a trip to Australia.
Her agent said last night that the actress had recently finished shooting a new series of detective drama Lewis for ITV, as well as Sky mystery The Five. However colleagues were said to have been ‘unable to get hold’ of her. And one source said that Miss Weeks’ behaviour at a theatre performance in Chichester last month had worried friends.
In January, she appeared before magistrates in Wimbledon where she admitted speeding in her BMW and driving while disqualified. She was given an electronic ankle tag and told not to leave her home between 9pm and 7am.
‘Increasingly erratic’
It was not clear whether her fouryear-old son Wade was the child in the car when it was stopped.
The actress – who has previously spoken candidly about her rebellious youth – is best known for her portrayal of Samantha Stewart alongside Michael Kitchen in ITV’s Foyle’s War from 2002 to 2010, and again in 2013 and 2015.
She has also appeared in The Bill and crime comedy Death In Para- dise. In 2005, she married hypnotherapist Lorne Stormonth Darling – who is 16 years her senior – in a Buddhist ceremony in the Himalayas.
He has Scottish ancestry as the son of the late Robin Stormonth Darling, a wealthy laird who owned Balvarran, a 2,500-acre estate in Perthshire.
They later had an official ceremony in West Sussex in which she wore a medieval-style gown bought for £280 from an antiques shop.
However the couple’s threebedroom terraced home in West London was recently put on the market for £725,000 and is understood to be under offer.
Neighbours yesterday claimed that Miss Weeks and her husband had fallen out. Paul Wincott, who lives two doors down, said he had not seen the actress at the house for several months.
‘They row constantly. He said they weren’t really talking at the moment,’ Mr Wincott said.
‘Sometimes you hear them running up and down the street.’