Downton Abbey has forced Brendan Coyle into heart-throb status, but he’s a reluctant celebrity (NORTHHAMPTON CHRONICLE)

Published on Thursday 17 May 2012 09:31

Since Colin Firth’s wet-shirted romp through the lake in Pride & Prejudice, never has a period drama had so many ladies swooning as Downton Abbey. And the reason?

Brendan Coyle.

As dark, brooding, stoic and chivalrous valet John Bates, Coyle has set legions of hearts aflutter.

But today, the 48-year-old actor, who’s even more attractive in the flesh, modestly brushes aside any reference to his sex symbol status.

“I just don’t engage with that. I think it’s better for everybody that I don’t!” he says, laughing.

“We’re in a hit, it’s not going to last forever, so we’ll just enjoy it and hopefully everyone does well out of that. It’s a great bunch of actors.”

After two series of Julian Fellowes’ cult ITV drama, Coyle is leaving the broody Bates for a while to star in new Sky1 comedy Starlings. While the premise of an oddball extended family rubbing along together in a detached Derbyshire home immediately struck a chord, he decided a change in direction would also stave off being typecast.

“I like to think I didn’t conscientiously go, ‘I’m going to do this simply because it’s very different’, but around about the time this came along I was offered a couple of other ‘moody men’ - moody man in a cloak, moody man with a knife - and I thought, ‘Just be around funny people for a while’.”

It was pretty much love at first sight when he picked up the Starlings script.

“I found it very, very funny. I read episodes one to three and felt an incredible warmth towards these characters. I just had one of those “yes” moments, when you get a script that makes you say “yes!”

“It made me laugh out loud and there was no kind of anxiety or tension or confrontation for a family. So I thought I’ve got to go and meet them for this.”

The Starlings are your average Joe working class brood. Granddad (Alan Williams) has recently moved in after an ‘incident’ in the old folks’ home. Terry (Coyle) and Jan (Lesley Sharp) would hate to see him suffer, so they put him up in their house which is already full to bursting. There’s tomboy teenager Charlie (Finn Atkins), reptile-loving slacker Gravy (John Dagleish), beautiful Bell (Rebecca Night) and her new baby Zac, who arrives for the first episode. Then there’s Bell’s ex Reuben (Ukweli Roach), Granddad’s long-lost son Uncle Loz (Matt King) and Jan’s nephew Fergie (Steve Edge), who offers to camp in the garden.


READ FURTHER:http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/lifestyle/weekend-life/tv-review/downton-abbey-has-forced-brendan-coyle-into-heart-throb-status-but-he-s-a-reluctant-celebrity-1-3849427