Classic Clunes

Martin Clunes on the joy of Vanity Fair, working with animals and caramel biscuits...

- Emma Bullimore

Drama

Vanity Fair

SUNDAY / ITV / 9PM

It’s a crisp, cold day in Surrey when TV Times arrives on set at West Horsley Place, a stately home where Elizabeth I visited and Guy Fawkes once served as footman. Today it’s doubling up as Sir Pitt Crawley’s country estate for ITV’s Vanity Fair…

Sir Pitt is the master of the house, played by Martin Clunes, who gets more than he bargained for when he employs Becky Sharp. When we find Martin, dressed in full 19th-century garb, he’s just finished filming a scene with rising star Olivia Cooke, who plays Becky, and the Crawley family, and is admiring his surroundings.

‘This is my favourite of all the houses we’ve visited for the shoot, it’s freezing but beautiful,’ says Martin, 56, welcoming us on set. ‘It’s colder inside than out! But it looks real, lived in and a bit wonky.’ It’s certainly a far cry from the sunny Cornish beaches where he films Doc Martin. Here TV Times favourite Martin tells us more…

Sir Pitt seems like a lovable rogue, what do you make of him?