HALCYON DAZE
OUCH! The ‘new Downton’ turns violent as jealous heroine’s stinging slap leaves love rival reeling in a...
IT’S been dubbed ‘the new Downton’ – and stars Olivia Williams as an aristocratic lady every bit as frosty and fearsome as the famously acerbic Dowager Countess.
But while the Downton matriarch played by Maggie Smith relied on stinging barbs to cut people down to size, her counterpart in The Halcyon – Lady Hamilton – takes a more direct approach, meting out a brutal slap to a love rival who bedded her late husband.
The shocking moment, to be broadcast tomorrow, follows on from last week’s opening episode of the drama – set in a fictional London hotel during the Second World War – in which Lord Hamilton suddenly died, leaving his widow to take sole control as owner of The Halcyon. Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, Ms Williams revealed that the slap to Charity Wakefield – the actress playing the mistress, Charity Lambert – was painfully real.
She said: ‘Charity bravely said we should go for one real slap, instead of faking it, and my hand connected with her face more effectively than I intended… she was extremely good-natured about it and said it didn’t hurt that much, but the crew were shocked.’
Williams, who sprang to fame starring opposite Bruce Willis in hit movie The Sixth Sense, welcomes comparisons between The Halycon and Downton Abbey. ‘If we are plugging the Downton gap, then I hope we are providing a public service and much needed relief for those in “Downton distress”.’
She said she is glad her character evokes memories of the Dowager Countess, adding: ‘Anything I have done that gives rise to a comparison with Dame Maggie is the result of an unashamed attempt to learn from her impeccable example.’
But Ms Williams, 48, also had a reallife role model as a source of material for the busy social whirl in London clubs and hotels during the war. ‘My husband’s grandmother has just celebrated her 101st birthday and recounted with crystal clarity her wartime expeditions to London,’ she explained. ‘She would catch a train to town and make her way to the nightclubs on Oxford Street and dance with African American soldiers until her feet bled. And when the sirens sounded and people shouted “Take cover!”, some would take cover and some would keep on dancing.’
While the star carefully guards the secrets of The Halcyon, viewers should expect a showdown between Lady Hamilton and hotel manager Richard Garland (Steven Mackintosh), who kept her husband’s prolific adultery secret. She said: ‘Lady Hamilton has been waiting for a chance to take down Mr Garland. She has lived in isolation in some grand country pile and drives to London for shopping and social events, but sees the hotel as her husband’s sordid knocking shop, facilitated by Garland.
‘She treats Garland as a grubby combination of tradesman and procurer she has longed to eliminate. And when her husband dies, she realises this is her chance.’
The Halcyon is on ITV tomorrow at 9pm.