Entrefilets

THERE are plenty of female fans who dreamily think of Matthew Macfadyen when he was in Spooks and still fantasize about rumpling his duvet, but the reality may be more prosaic.

At least with his on-screen erotic encounters, according to actress Hayley Atwell, who will soon be seen tossing and turning with Macfadyen in the forthcoming TV adaptation of William Boyd’s moving novel Any Human Heart.

She chirrups: “We had to strip but for our love scenes Matthew wore a sort of skin-coloured cloth to protect his modesty and I wore nipple pads which I painted smiley faces on.”

Reassuringly for Matthew’s real-life wife, Keeley Hawes, Hayley concludes: “We tried to have fun with it, but the scenes weren’t erotic at all.”

There are so many brilliant actors coming out of Australia and Britain — Richard Armitage and Matthew McFadyen and Simon Woods — they’re just everywhere, really brilliant wonderful guys who articulate beautifully, who are physically beautiful themselves.

I’d tell you who I think would be wonderful as Marius is Matthew McFadyen. I don’t know if you saw The Pillars of the Earth. Oh he’s wonderful — he’s in MI5 as the head spy. He’s just great. I think his voice and his eyes — that’s Marius. All he needs is a blond wig.

In her charmed working life since leaving drama school (her four best female friends have not had the same luck but remain ‘fantastically supportive’ of her success), she has been privileged to work with some amazing actors. Tom Courtenay is a particular favourite, as are Matthew Macfadyen and his wife Keeley Hawes (‘the best couple ever’), and she has huge admiration for their refusal to become ‘celebrities’. Her future career, she hopes, will be like theirs – with an emphasis on the work not the fame.

Peers: McAvoy’s peer group consists of a number of actors who, like McAvoy, could be described as a thinking person’s leading man — that includes his X-Men co-star Michael Fassbender, as well as James Franco (32), Matthew Goode (33), Jim Sturgess (32), Matthew Macfadyen (36), Ryan Gosling (30), and Chris Pine (30).

9. Her Hobbies Aren't Really Fit For A Dame…

She developed a fondness for needlework when working with Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFayden on Pride and Prejudice, but this wasn't any old penchant for 'nanny knitting'. 'She makes these like needlework embroideries on set in the tedium of filming,' said MacFadyen, 'You kind of see the work materialising as the shoot goes on but then you realise they say things like: "You Are A F*ing Sh*t." And she gives them as presents.'

“Matthew Macfadyen I was at Rada with, however. We might start up a club – like a Darcy dining club – swapping Darcy notes.”

“If they’d offered me Darcy in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ I'd have said no,” Rhys says. “I was in college with Matthew Macfadyen (who played Darcy in the 2005 movie version) and I saw how he was constantly compared to Colin.