Fans of Robert Bathurst are sure to enjoy him playing a very different character (Image: Alistair Heap)
From Cold Feet to Downton Abbey, Robert Bathurst has enjoyed a stellar career over the past four decades – regularly playing the posh, repressed husband or father. But tonight as he makes his debut on the ’s long-running medical drama, Casualty, it’s an altogether different character we will be seeing. Robert is taking the role of Russell Whitelaw, a gifted surgeon who has saved hundreds of lives but whose highly questionable attitude towards his colleagues – especially women – is often patronising, bullying and deeply inappropriate.
The ultimate alpha male and the exact opposite of the real-life Robert, who is joined by Call the Midwife’s Olly Rix for the new “box set” of episodes that will run over the next 12 weeks. It’s hoped they will shine an important light on the power struggles that can not only go on in a hospital, but also any modern-day workplace. And for the 68-year-old star – widely regarded as one of the nicest actors in the TV industry – the opportunity to play such a ruthless character was one he couldn’t turn down.
“Russell is charming, talented and he is very quick to tell people that he has saved the lives of several hundred,” explains Robert in an exclusive interview ahead of his arrival in the Saturday night series.
“But this somehow also gives him the licence to behave how he wishes! He believes he is propping up the reputation of the entire hospital, even though his behaviour is less than exemplary. He is also not particularly worried about what people think of him either. He certainly wouldn’t see his behaviour as out of order.” Ever the professional, Robert doesn’t want to divulge too much about how the storyline will play out, but suffice to say, there will be plenty of twists and turns.
But what makes the plot so fascinating, he explains, is the minutiae of detail the writers sought out to make sure they got it right. As part of his own research, Robert spent a day at a London teaching hospital with highly acclaimed surgeon, Mr George Reese, learning the ropes. “We had access-all-areas,” enthuses the actor.
“We were able to look in on operations, talk to them about power structures and how people speak to each other – and how beholden people are in hierarchies not to blow the whistle because it affects their prospects – all those political things. “It was really fascinating and what is interesting [about the storyline] is the deniability – that there is no apparent recourse. And that is a very powerful thing when someone has done something but is able to deny it.”
Robert rose to fame on Cold Feet (Image: Supplied )
Has he ever been bullied himself, I wonder? “Well, you can’t go through an acting profession without having come at the rough end of a lot of decisions,” Robert replies philosophically. He then goes on to applaud surgeons for being detached.
“People say surgeons have no feelings and I actually think that is pretty good,” says Robert. “I don’t want a surgeon to have that many feelings, I want a surgeon to be able to operate on me and not feel my pain with me.”
A private person, he understandably doesn’t want to share whether he has personally spent any time as an in-patient in a hospital, but he does reminisce fondly about his days working as a physiotherapy orderly during his college holidays.
“I used to take stroke patients for their first walk,” he recalls. “I’d go a yard-a-minute down the corridor and in the hydrotherapy pool. It was fascinating to work in a hospital.”
Hermione Norris as Jo Cummings Brown and Robert Bathurst as Andy Cummings Brown in Agatha Raisin (Image: Supplied )
As he chats, it’s clear Robert loved his time filming Casualty and playing a character so far removed from himself.
“It was a voyage of adventure,” he beams. “It was a lot of fun and they have a brilliant team. The show has lasted so long for a reason.
“Not only is it well-organised, directed and written, it appeals to people in the medical profession. Casualty is so cleverly done that even doctors and nurses find it appealing.
“And the great thing about acting is, over a career, you get to know a little about a lot. George would be on set saying, ‘You are holding that wrong’, to make it plausible for the audience.
“I enjoyed the complexity of the character, and I really enjoyed the filming – even though when I first started in the studio it was like being in a hospital. I kept getting lost! You often found yourself walking into cupboards.”
An incredibly polite and engaging person, Robert is very self-deprecating when it comes to his own incredible career that has seen him play so many characters both on stage and the screen. They include Sir Anthony Strallan in Downton Abbey; a fictional prime minister in the sitcom, My Dad’s the Prime Minister; Mark Thatcher in Coup!; and of course, David Marsden in the cult hit, Cold Feet, which ran for five series from 1998 to 2003 and another four from 2016 to 2020.
Robert Bathurst admits his character on Casualty is deeply flawed (Image: ITV / Big Talk)
Asked whether he minds the fact he is still regularly referred to as a Cold Feet star, he replies: “Definitely not.
“I don’t resent it at all,” he continues. “I am very happy to be associated with Cold Feet. It was ground-breaking in its time.
“No one expected it to work. They [ITV] started off not that keen on it, but then the pilot won an award, and they felt they had to give it a series and it took off from there.
“Each series we did was always likely to be the last one, and we went on to do five back in the day, then we made another four, it grew and grew.
“Every freelance performer is happy to have that on their CV, you can look at it historically now – it was a hit.” Last year, his fellow cast member, James Nesbitt, admitted he would like Cold Feet to return. Does Robert share this view? Fans will be pleased to learn the answer is a resounding yes.
In fact, Robert reveals today he’s even talked to the drama’s writer, Mike Bullen, about a sequel – or part three.
“I said to the writer: ‘Come on Mike, how about Cold Feet the third age?’ What’s great about Mike’s writing is he has always allowed us to grow older. There is a lot of juice in those characters and to see how they have got on in the third phase of their life – because we were relatively young when it started, then middle-aged and now we have got old enough to have been dented by life experience and all that – so I can see the point of it. But it’s not my decision. Whether ITV do or not is another matter.”
He reveals he has just finished another TV drama although he can’t give any details as it hasn’t been announced yet – but the thought of retirement is not on his radar.
“Ultimately the profession may retire me but I am going to carry on until that happens,” he declares, jovially. “It is all about the audience. I try to learn on every job I do, find new points of interest, and squeeze the dialogue for all the ironies. I like working.”
Interestingly, Robert didn’t take the traditional path by training as an actor. Instead, he studied law at Pembroke College in Cambridge but joined the university’s famous Footlights group, where his love for playing different characters grew. After graduating, he took the decision not to work as a barrister.
Does he ever wonder what might have been?
“That was a long time ago, decades ago,” he muses. “I trained but never practised. I was always doing shows, and I knew I wanted to do what I am doing now. I never looked back and never had a moment about ‘What if?’. I knew I would do the exams and jump and see what happens…”
His instinct to “see what happens” was certainly the right one and away from a job he loves, Robert has also been happily married to artist Victoria Threlfall, with whom he tied the knot in 1985. They have four grown-up daughters.
Are his children proud of their famous dad? “I don’t think pride comes into it,” he says, laughing. “I remember I was doing a show once with an office chair. It was on casters and my two daughters were watching. The stage was tilted, and I stood up and I heard this rumble behind me.
“The chair overtook me, and my daughters were on the verge of shouting ‘Daddy’ to help me out and to warn me this was going on. I would have loved it if they had, so it is fun having them in the audience.
“I don’t get nervous about them being there but whether they are proud or not is entirely down to them.”
Given he is such a recognisable face, you wouldn’t blame the casting producers if they approached Robert to take part.
“I would never do anything like that,” he admits in a good-natured way. “Someone mentioned it to me and it took 0.04 seconds to respond.”
Robert Bathurst as Sergeant Wilson in Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes (Image: Supplied )
He reveals he has just finished another TV drama although he can’t give any details as it hasn’t been announced yet – but the thought of retirement is not on his radar.
“Ultimately the profession may retire me but I am going to carry on until that happens,” he declares, jovially. “It is all about the audience. I try to learn on every job I do, find new points of interest, and squeeze the dialogue for all the ironies. I like working.”
Interestingly, Robert didn’t take the traditional path by training as an actor. Instead, he studied law at Pembroke College in Cambridge but joined the university’s famous Footlights group, where his love for playing different characters grew. After graduating, he took the decision not to work as a barrister.
Does he ever wonder what might have been?
“That was a long time ago, decades ago,” he muses. “I trained but never practised. I was always doing shows, and I knew I wanted to do what I am doing now. I never looked back and never had a moment about ‘What if?’. I knew I would do the exams and jump and see what happens…”
Robert hs become one of TV’s most recognisable actors (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
His instinct to “see what happens” was certainly the right one and away from a job he loves, Robert has also been happily married to artist Victoria Threlfall, with whom he tied the knot in 1985. They have four grown-up daughters.
Are his children proud of their famous dad? “I don’t think pride comes into it,” he says, laughing. “I remember I was doing a show once with an office chair. It was on casters and my two daughters were watching. The stage was tilted, and I stood up and I heard this rumble behind me.
“The chair overtook me, and my daughters were on the verge of shouting ‘Daddy’ to help me out and to warn me this was going on. I would have loved it if they had, so it is fun having them in the audience.
“I don’t get nervous about them being there but whether they are proud or not is entirely down to them.”
Given he is such a recognisable face, you wouldn’t blame the casting producers if they approached Robert to take part.
“I would never do anything like that,” he admits in a good-natured way. “Someone mentioned it to me and it took 0.04 seconds to respond.”
He returns to Casualty. Tonight, his character will operate on his son-in-law, played by actor Olly Rix, after a terrible accident but Robert’s character soon realises the patient has been cheating on his daughter. This discovery sets off a chain of events that forces the surgeon to confront his own sense of control – and whether his grip on power is truly as unshakeable as he believes. It makes for gripping television.
“Hospitals are like courtrooms,” Robert agrees. “They are forums for high tension and people are living in a very emotionally extreme state. Casualty can rise to that extreme situation and it’s a very interesting forum to create a drama in. The team worked so hard.
“I suspect the people who run it are very good circus jugglers; they certainly have several plates spinning in the air at any one time with so many stories! It’s been a lot of fun.”
The new 12-part Casualty miniseries, Internal Affairs, starts tonight (Saturday 15th March). It is available from 6am on iPlayer and will air at 8.30pm on One