Downton hunk comes back from the dead . . . to sex up Jane Austen
HIS brooding good looks caught viewers’ eyes when he played the roguish Turkish diplomat found dead in Lady Mary’s bed in Downton Abbey.
Now, Theo James is set to return to our screens as the star of the latest Jane Austen TV adaptation.
The 34-year-old plays Sidney Parker, the romantic hero at the heart of Sanditon, Austen’s last – and unfinished – novel.
It has been adapted by Andrew Davies, the screenwriter behind the BBC’s 1995 hit Pride And Prejudice, and will be broadcast on ITV this autumn.
The role seems certain to elevate James to stardom after his memorable cameo in 2010 during the first series of Downton. Then, he played Kemal Pamuk, who dies of a heart attack after seducing Mary, played by Michelle Dockery.
Downton creator Julian Fellowes said: ‘The main thing I remember about casting him was that we asked all the women in the office which actors on the list to be auditioned they found attractive and Theo was the head-and-shoulders winner.
‘Mary would essentially be risking everything by sleeping with him and only if Kemal was irresistible would it be believable.’
Austen completed 11 chapters of Sanditon before her death in 1817. It tells the tale of Charlotte Heywood, played by Rose Williams, who moves to Sanditon, a fictitious seaside resort.
Parker appears late in the story but literary experts are convinced Austen intended him to be the hero. Bafta-winning dramatist Davies has also placed Parker centre stage. In a recent interview, he said Parker came complete with his own ‘air of danger’.
And there’s even a nod to the famous ‘wet shirt’ scene in Pride And Prejudice, when Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy emerged soaking wet after diving into Pemberley’s lake.
The series features scenes in which male characters, including Parker, run naked into the sea.