Poldark’s fat controller!

Christian Brassington – Poldark’s domineering vicar Ossie – reveals his gut-busting preparation for the role

Many of us can share a story of struggling to lose weight, but Poldark’s Christian Brassington has the opposite problem. Desperate to pile on the pounds to play despicable Reverend Osborne Whitworth, the 35-year-old had gorged on 4,000 calories a day and spent hours in the gym to bulk up. Then he met up with friends for a quiet lunch, and it all went wrong.

‘ Cocktails happened,’ grins Christian. ‘The next day was a write-off. I missed a day and a half of exercising and sticking to my diet. I lost 3lb, just like that, which is what I’d been putting on per week.

‘I was eating 28,000 calories a week and I’d essentially wasted an entire seven days by having that time off, which was extremely disappointing.

‘But it wasn’t that surprising. If you stop eating huge amounts, your body just goes, “Oh thank God, I can try and get back down to where I want to be.”’

For his first outing as Ossie, in series three, Christian had gained two and a half stone by drinking beer and eating ice cream, Mars bars and chips. He lost a stone after that round of filming, but gained it back for season four with a healthier, exercise-based regime.

‘There was a lot of oily fish and green vegetables cooked in olive oil and quinoa, although 4,000 calories of that a day is a bit much. So there was a lot of red meat and potatoes too, a lot of bulking protein shakes. And I was working with a personal trainer, doing big weights, deadlifts and squats, to put on muscle as well as fat. I spent most of my time either cooking, eating or positioned under a squat rack of weights. It’s mad how much you have to eat and how much you have to exercise to achieve a certain look.’

Christian says he was keen to get to a point where he found it hard to get out of an armchair in a scene in Poldark. ‘That’s when I’d know I’d really got myself as bulky as I need to be.’

The gym visits didn’t finish when filming did, as he went twice a day to shed the hard-won padding, and today he’s much slimmer. But we can still see the actor at his chubbiest on screens every Sunday as the loathsome Ossie.

This week, his hold over his wife Morwenna weakens more as she becomes reacquainted with her true love, Drake, the brother of Ross Poldark’s wife De melza. Ossie seeks

With Eleanor Tomlinson, who

plays Demelza solace by sucking on the toes of his favourite prostitute.

‘Ossie loves feet, there’s no getting around it,’ grins Christian. ‘I only hope toe sucking isn’t something I’m forever associated with.

‘My dad thinks it might be. He said, quite darkly, “I hope this doesn’t follow you around your whole career”, and I thought, “I wasn’t worried until now!”

‘It wouldn’t worry me to be associated with the role. I’ve been incredibly privileged to play it.’

The part of Ossie, taken in the 1970s TV series by Christopher Biggins, is Christian’s big break. Before that, he was best known for playing politicians: a young

Boris Johnson in the More4 docudrama When Boris Met Dave and Tony Blair in Channel 4’s Tony Blair: Rock Star.

Surely Ossie, a man who has assaulted his wife and cavorted with her sister, Rowella, is more divisive than those two upstanding gentlemen. Has Christian had abuse from the viewing public? Apparently not. ‘People are nice to me. I get second- hand abuse, people saying, “My mum said this” or “My mate said that”, but that’s it. Interest from the public has been awkward, at worst. I had a couple of weeks off filming Poldark so I visited my wife [director/ producer Jennie Fava], who was working in Hungary, and a woman and her daughter recognised me as Ossie and wanted a photograph. At the time, I was sitting seminaked in a thermal bath.’

Christian admits playing Ossie has its challenges, and not just the weight gain. With its 9pm slot, Poldark isn’t afraid to show distressing scenes, including those last season where Ossie forced himself upon Morwenna, played by Ellise Chappell. Morwenna was a poor cousin of Elizabeth Warleggan, for whom she’d been working as a governess, and had been forced to marry Ossie by Elizabeth’s husband George. He had discovered she was in love with Drake, the brotherin-law of his mortal enemy, Ross. Morwenna loathed Ossie – but he demanded she fulfil her marital duties, and only gave her a brief respite when he pursued her sister. ‘It probably is more fun to play a bad guy, but you have to do unpleasant things,’ says Christian. ‘You just have to make sure everyone is comfortable. I’m incredibly fond of Ellise and she knows I’m there for her. After difficult scenes, we have a hug and talk about something else, maybe go out for dinner. It’s intense.’ Ellise says Christian is always a perfect gentleman. ‘I couldn’t have hoped for a better partner for challenging scenes,’ she says. ‘He’s a joy to work with. So unlike his character.’ Maybe, but Christian says he understands where the odious man is coming from. ‘I read Ossie’s lines for the first time and thought, “I’ve got this man’s voice in me somewhere”. I don’t know what that says about me! You have to bring understanding to a part. However brutal a scene, you have to commit to it. ‘Ossie really thinks he’s God’s gift to women, to the clergy, to society, he doesn’t think of himself as evil or repulsive.’ And he says Ossie will seem like charm personified when his ice queen of a mother Lady Whitworth, played by Rebecca Front, appears this series. ‘Rebecca is lovely but terrifying in this. When she fixes you with her stare you want to be anywhere else! It’s a stare that will terrify the nation!’

‘Ossie thinks he’s God’s gift – he doesn’t think he’s evil’

Osborne with his long-suffering wife Morwenna (Ellise Chappell)