A taste for crime:
Vincent Regan finds the show’s title lives up to its name as he joins the cast of the British drama Delicious. Kerry Harvey reports.
The British crime show with all the right ingredients.
It’s not his usual fare but actor Vincent Regan says Delicious has all the right ingredients for him.
“When I got the call to do Delicious I was really excited about it because I thought, ‘Great. It’s working in Cornwall, it’s working with Dawn French and Emilia Fox and also it’s about food’,” says the 53-year-old actor who has spent most of his career playing Ancient Greek heroes and noblemen.
“(Delicious) means I just get to basically go somewhere nice, work with some lovely people and eat some lovely food – and get paid for it. It was a no-brainer really.”
The drama lives up to its name, according to Regan.
“I never, ever really put any food in my mouth when filming because if you have to do it five or six times the last thing you want to do is eat food for four hours whilst you’re doing a scene,” he says.
“But we were doing one scene at a garden party and the food arrived. It was these little brioches with Parma
ham and figs and we had to do a take where I had to take one and eat it.
“I said, ‘OK we’ll go for one and I’ll eat it’ and it was extraordinary. So I said, ‘I’m afraid I will have to go again. I think I can do it better this time’. Every chance I got, I ate in Delicious because the food was wonderful and it looked good as well.”
Delicious, now in its third season, follows the lives of renowned chef Gina Benelli (The Vicar Of Dibley’s Dawn French) and Sam Vincent (Silent Witness’ Emilia Fox) – who were both once married to the same man, hotelier Leo Vincent (Game Of Thrones’ Iain Glen).
Following Leo’s death (Glen continues as the show’s narrator), the two women have to put aside their differences to keep the hotel in business while dealing with some messy family dramas involving Leo’s adult children – Teresa (Tanya Reynolds), Michael
(Ruairi O’Connor) and Adam (Aaron Anthony) – and Leo’s outspoken mother Mimi (Sheila Hancock).
Season three marks the arrival of Mason Elliot (Regan’s character), a top chef and head of a restaurant empire, who is keen to lure Gina away from the hotel – and possibly into his bed. Meanwhile, Sam eyes him up as a prospective investor for her new spa. Elsewhere, Teresa – who has returned from Asia without Michael – and Mimi are both hiding big secrets.
Regan, too, is good at keeping secrets when it comes to just what Mason Elliot’s real intentions are.
“I don’t want to give away too many spoilers regarding the character but most of the roles I play are either gangster villains or mediaeval or ancient Greek soldiers so it’s nice to play someone who is quite urbane, quite sophisticated,” he says.
“Often I play bad guys, so it’s really nice to play good guys every once in a while. He’s quite a complicated character but he has a good heart. The audience may not think he’s such a good guy but as an actor you always have to love your characters.
“He’s a very good chef but not world class and he’s one of those people that, if he’s not world class at something, he won’t do it so, instead, he’ll own restaurants and get the world’s best chefs to work for him.” Regan, who will be back in Cornwall soon joining the cast for the fifth and final season of Poldark and also features in the upcoming season of Victoria, has his own ideas about why Delicious has proved so popular with audiences. “It’s funny because people have asked me what kind of show it is. Is it a comedy, is it a drama? And you don’t want to come out with terms like, ‘No it’s a dramedy’,” he says. “However, it is a drama about relationships so it is funny and it has pathos. It has tragedy because it’s drama about life, I suppose. “It’s about women really. Even though I’m in it and Iain Glen is in it, at the end of the day it’s about these women and their relationships, these inter-generational relationships, and it’s about how one generation can teach others about mistakes they have made in life and are still making in life. I think that’s the core of the show really. “I think the food and Cornwall are just very nice additions to it but, really, it’s about learning from mistakes made by your mother, your grandmother. I think that’s the heart of the show.”