How Hayley’s clan lost a property fortune at poker

QUEEN of period productions Hayley atwell has revealed a piece of high drama from her family’s past that she reckons makes her a shoo-in to play her heroine, Scarlett O’Hara.

The Brideshead and Howards End star says: ‘‘My family on my father’s side are from the MidWest and we have loads of stories about the Civil War. One of my ancestors was given land on Catalina island. He gambled it in a poker game and lost.’

Hayley, 37, adds of the 1939 classic gone With The Wind starring Vivien Leigh: ‘i love the freedom of Scarlett’s petulance and stubborn nature.’