New Poldark villain: I fear I’ll be most hated man on television
Poldark made its name with steamy scenes featuring topless hunk Aidan Turner. So it is little wonder viewers’ stomachs turned at the sight of bloated Reverend Osborne Whitworth sucking a prostitute’s toes, his eyes rolling back in his head in ecstasy.
But Christian Brassington, who plays the BBC1 show’s lecherous new villain, is usually just as dishy as its leading man.
The 34-year-old – who flaunted his trim body in Y-fronts in a drama about Tony Blair’s university years – had to pile on the pounds to play grotesque Ossie.
In the months before filming, he scoffed 3,500 calories a day to balloon from 13 stone to 15. Christian said: “Normally, actors have to get into shape for a role rather than out of it. But Osborne is described as a large character and a man of a huge appetite, so there was no getting around that. I had to gain a lot weight. “I ate a diet that included some protein shakes but it was mostly Häagen-Dazs ice cream and beer. I quite enjoyed putting the weight on to start with but near the end I didn’t so much – and now I am trying to lose it, which is no fun at all. It takes much longer to lose weight than to put it on. “The producers didn’t demand I put on the weight but this character, he’s a big guy and he needs to be like that and I love that side of things. I like losing the weight, putting on the weight and transforming the body for the part. I hope it looks good.” On competing with Aidan, 34, he adds with a laugh: “I am going to do some topless modelling at my top weight!” Now filming has wrapped up, Christian plans to work on a writing project with Georgia Moffett, 32 – the wife of his good pal David Tennant, 46. He met the former Doctor Who and Broadchurch star on the set of 2009 film St Trinian’s: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold. David introduced Christian to wife Jennie Fava, 42, and officiated at their wedding in 2013.
Christian was born in Wellington, Shrops, but spent most of his youth in Basingstoke, going to local comprehensive Brighton Hill Community School before studying drama at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. One of his earliest TV roles was playing a pants-flashing Blair in the Channel 4’s 2006 drama Tony Blair: Rock Star.
In 2007, he starred opposite Cate Blanchett as Charles II, Archduke of Austria, in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. He then featured alongside Catherine Tate in the 2008’s Mrs Ratcliffe’s Revolution and in 2009 was Boris Johnson in Channel 4 docudrama When Boris Met Dave. And playing BoJo turned out to be good training for his turn as Ossie. Christian said: “They probably
quite enjoy the sound of their own voice, can I put it that way?” However, Christian’s rise to stardom has not been without the odd hiccup. In May 2016, he was declared bankrupt. He has taken on a variety of work over the years to pay the bills, including a Toyota Yaris advert where he appears in duplicate and nearly kisses himself.
Ossie is likely to be his breakthrough role – but it might not bring him the kind of attention Aidan gets. Initially, he seemed more of a comedy character than a baddie. Christian even admitted he created a version of the reverend who is “Prince Charles with a touch of Terry Thomas”. But he admits his character is no angel, adding: “Ossie is unaware of his own self-importance and obsessed with his appearance, with this very thin veneer of being this man of God. “He has no self-control when it comes to food or women.” The character quickly became one of the show’s most reviled. After appearing in episode four as a widower, he has his sights set on marrying again so he has someone to look after his children.
He targeted Morwenna Chynoweth, played by Ellise Chappell, who initially rebuffed him but wed him under duress to save the life of her true love.
Christian said: “While he is a monster, writer Debbie Horsfield has written him well because I don’t think that is your initial reaction. It is only once the series develops his true colours come out.”
Christian has had a tough act to follow, too. In the original 1975 series, the role was played by Christopher Biggins, who Christian was introduced to earlier this month – by his mate David Tennant.
In a more prudish era, the BBC did not screen the toe-sucking scenes, even though Winston Graham’s Poldark novels stress the reverend’s love of feet. Still, Biggins did such a good job with the character he was verbally abused in the street.
Christian said: “The character was voted the most hated on television. It’s a lot to live up to, which is what Winston Graham’s family told me. You have to take it as compliment. People are believing it.
“But I am now a bit lighter than I am in the show and I have grown my beard back, so hopefully I’m disguised enough so people won’t be hurling abuse at me.”
The Poldark finale screens on BBC1 next Sunday at 9pm.