A break from posh

The actor Ed Stoppard is kicking off the year in some nice period costumes. One of our brightest young actors, he’s back at 165 Eaton Place in the new BBC Upstairs Downstairs (reviewed on page 60) playing the diplomat Sir Hallam Holland. It’s got gas masks, the Munich Crisis, cocktails, a dead pet monkey, the odd conchie servant and, not least from Ed’s point of view, some great clothes.

‘In this series I get to wear jodhpurs and hacking jacket, naval uniform, black tie, white tie and a dressing-gown that would make Hugh Hefner green with envy. It will look sumptuous — more so than the last series. So there will be more bang for your buck,’ says Stoppard, who is hardly ever off-screen in a show whose great blessing is that, unlike Downton Abbey, it doesn’t have adverts every three minutes.

In London, the 36-year-old actor is also about to open in a new play, opposite the gorgeous if atrociously spelt supermodel Agyness Deyn (formerly known as Laura Hollins).