Paxman’s mea culpa

Jeremy Paxman’s cynicism runs deep, says Janice Turner in The Times – but even he sometimes finds it too much. “I remember at school, three of us talking about what to do. One chap wanted to be a doctor. I didn’t know what I wanted to be. The third fellow said, ‘I don’t mind what I do, as long as I’m happy.’ I remember saying, ‘What a ridiculously superficial ambition,’ and he just looked slightly gobsmacked.” Years later, Paxman heard that the man now worked at the UN, and wrote to say that their conversation had always haunted him: “I wanted to apologise, because you were right and I was wrong.” The man responded: “Very nice of you to write, but I’ve no recollection of this at all.” Robert Bathurst looks like the classic posh, bumbling Englishman – and is often cast accordingly. But the 59-year-old star of Cold Feet was born in Ghana and spent much of his childhood in Ireland, where his father was a management consultant. At the age of eight, he was sent to a grim Irish boarding school run by Benedictine monks, where he was bullied by both staff and pupils. It was here, ironically, that he acquired his air of English reserve. “Your letters were read and if you said anything against the school, you were beaten,” he told Ginny Dougary in the Radio Times. “It has forced me to be very private. You become more watchful and calculating. You’re wary; you anticipate trouble. You work out how things might play and decide whether or not to show your hand.” He doesn’t blame his parents: his mother suffered from mental health problems. “My sister was born in 1961 and my mother spent much of the following two years in and out of places. I never addressed it with my parents but I know she had ECT and was away a lot. One of the reasons we were sent away was to take the pressure off her. Even though she was lovely there was always a hint of her just holding on.” With all this hinterland, is it frustrating to be always cast as the same type? “There is much more range, I think, than I’m allowed to do,” he agrees. “But then all actors say that.”