Emilia Fox is all grown up – and a mother herself these days – but she’ll still wake up on Christmas morning to find presents on her bed. ‘I still get a stocking. If you carry on believing in Father Christmas, he has to come to you!’
The 45-year-old star of Silent Witness and the new BBC drama The Trial Of Christine Keeler will spend the festive period with her nine-year-old daughter Rose and other members of the famous Fox acting dynasty, including her father Edward, mother Joanna and brother Freddie. ‘We’ll probably be at my parents’ house in the West Country,’ she says. ‘We have no television, no phone reception. I’m really hoping this year we’ve got hot water, because last year we didn’t,’ she says. ‘It’s really eccentric. Blissfully Dickensian, if the two things can be equated. We play games and have conversations with each other.’
Emilia Fox, the 45-year-old star of Silent Witness and the new BBC drama The Trial Of Christine Keeler is preparing to spend the festive period with her nine-year-old daughter Rose and other members of the famous Fox acting dynasty
Rose will be the only child there on Christmas Eve, but the adults will keep the magic alive. ‘I said she would have to ask Father Christmas for something she wanted and I saw her give me a look. I thought, is that the smile? Has it happened? Has someone told you? Are you going to carry on pretending like I’m pretending? But we’re good at pretending in my family. That’s the job we do, right? Pretend. Just keep pretending!’
Her grandfather was a theatrical agent and so is her uncle Robert. Uncle James became a star after appearing opposite Mick Jagger in Performance. Her father Edward’s most famous role is probably in the spy thriller The Day Of The Jackal, while Freddie’s rise to fame began with the movies Pride and The Riot Club. Mother Joanna (surname David) was in the TV version of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice (the one with Colin Firth as Mr Darcy in a wet shirt) in 1995, and that was also young Emilia’s first big role. Then there’s cousin Laurence, best known for starring in the crime series Lewis. Cousin Lydia appeared in the hit comedy The IT Crowd, then married its star, Richard Ayoade, and has three children with him.
‘There will be a lot of Fox cubs around,’ says Emilia, but they will arrive later in the holidays. On Christmas Eve, Rose will be encouraged to write a letter to Santa, just as she did as a little girl. ‘I remember that reassuring feeling as a child on Christmas Eve, of people coming together in the heart of the family home. Suddenly, there was no work and my parents were back. Then the excitement of writing a very long letter to Father Christmas and leaving it by the big fireplace, which has mountains of ash, years and years’ worth, for a soft landing for him. He would answer the next morning with a long letter back, also left by the fireplace, sometimes a little burnt at the edges.’
Sophie Cookson as Christine Keeler with Ellie Bamber as Mandy Rice-Davies in The Trial Of Christine Keeler. Emilia Fox plays Valerie Profumo
The tradition continues, with a little help from Rose’s grandfather. ‘The letters that come back are to be kept for ever as family heirlooms. They are always very detailed and thoughtful, about the year and things that have gone on. I know I’ll look back on those in later life, because they’re quite special.’
Fox is warm and witty, and looks totally relaxed as she reclines on a sofa in the north London studio where we have met. Her hair is darker than the blonde we’re used to on screen, almost black and matched by the colour of her nails. Who would be her dream kiss under the mistletoe? ‘An old fashioned smooch with someone I love.’
That’s a coy answer, as Fox is believed to be engaged to her boyfriend, the stockbroker turned agent Luc Chaudhary. If it’s true, they are keeping the news private for now.
Fox was engaged to comedian Vic Reeves for a year then married actor Jared Harris, but they divorced four years later. Rose’s father is the film-maker Jeremy Gilley. Fox dated the chef Marco Pierre White, but was then said to be single for a couple of years until she was photographed this summer with Chaudhary. Through all of this, work has provided stability. ‘It has become the thing that I have for myself, that I really look forward to and still relish. It stimulates me.’
The role that has defined her career for the past 14 years is that of forensic pathologist Nikki Alexander in Silent Witness. ‘Nikki has shaped my life through my 30s and 40s. She’s seen me through changing times in my life and been a familiar, loyal companion. I love going back to her each time and there’s a new series in the New Year.’
Who would be Emilia Fox’s dream kiss under the mistletoe? ‘An old fashioned smooch with someone I love’
Having a regular role with understanding employers has also helped her care for Rose. ‘I wanted to be a good mum. When you have children you make a choice about getting that balance right. Inevitably it comes with guilt on both sides, worrying about whether you’re spreading yourself too thin. I got lucky because Silent Witness became something I could do and be a single parent at the same time.’
The commute is not exactly taxing. ‘It takes seven months to shoot a series but I live five minutes away from the studio.’ That’s in West Acton. ‘People think when you go filming you just disappear and leave your domestic life behind. That has not been the case for me.’
Now, though, she is passionate about a new role: that of Valerie Hobson, a Fifties movie star who gave up her career to be the wife of politician John Profumo. He was a rising star and tipped to be the next prime minister until his infidelities caused the biggest scandal British politics had ever seen. ‘I feel very attached to her, probably more than any other part I’ve ever played,’ says Fox. ‘I feel quite a responsibility towards Valerie, quite emotional about her as a woman and an actress and a wife and mother. I tried to get under her skin, or she got under my skin. I find it easy letting go of parts when I go home and go back to being a mum, but I haven’t quite let go of her.’
The BBC series tells the story of Christine Keeler, the 19-year-old model and showgirl at the heart of the Profumo Affair in the Sixties. Her mentor was the osteopath and artist Stephen Ward, who had a lot of friends in high places. He introduced her to John Profumo, the secretary of state for war, and the pair were briefly lovers. She was also thought to be the lover of Captain Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet naval attaché and potential spy. This, unsurprisingly, was said to be a risk to national security.
‘People think when you go filming you just disappear and leave your domestic life behind. That has not been the case for me,’ Emilia Fox tells Event
Profumo denied the affair and was backed by prime minister Harold Macmillan, but a few weeks later he admitted the truth and stepped down as an MP. Macmillan resigned and the Conservatives lost the next election.
There have been many attempts to tell the story on screen, including the movie Scandal, but The Trial Of Christine Keeler is written and directed by women and is the first to see things from her perspective. ‘You think you know the story from the headlines and how the media chose to portray it,’ says Fox. ‘I think what gets forgotten is that these were actual human beings who had feelings and the ripple effect on their lives of that sensational scandal, being exposed in that way.’
Keeler has often been played as a femme fatale, but this time she has a big dash of innocence. ‘The girls are childlike. They seem so young in comparison to the men they were used by. That’s not the way Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies have been portrayed in the past. Christine was an ordinary girl trying to look after her mum, make a bit of money but also go and have a party. She got sucked into this and then used as a scapegoat – both by the men and by the media.’
It has been described as a post-#MeToo version of the story. ‘This drama is told with an understanding of the women and how they became involved in the sexual blackmail element of it, and how they felt about that. It’s not just about the scandal.’
Emilia Fox (on right) in 1978 visiting her father Edward in hospital with her mother Joanna (back) and sister Lucy
Fox plays the politician’s wife as a strong woman who has experienced the seedy, manipulative side of male power as an actress. ‘She had her own #MeToo moments of being chased around the casting couch and hated that sexual blackmail and wouldn’t commit to it,’ says Fox. ‘One American said there would be no work for her because she was a “goddamn cold, frigid bitch”.’ Hobson still achieved great fame in David Lean’s Great Expectations and the Ealing comedy Kind Hearts And Coronets, but retired after starring in the original West End production of The King And I.
‘She was the one who was well known when she first met Profumo. They were this golden couple: the war hero and the actress.’
Valerie had no illusions about her husband. ‘She knew she married a man who was devoted to his work and who was also a great admirer of women. She wasn’t naive about that at all. She talks about knowing this wasn’t the first affair and it wouldn’t be the last.’
Her character tells Profumo that if he wants to be prime minister he had better ‘stand down’ from any more affairs. ‘She had more maturity than him, sexually. She was trying to guide him.’ But his philandering did hurt her when it was exposed. ‘The humiliation became a big thing for her. That remained throughout their lives. Any time it came up again, the scab got taken off the hurt.’
Still, Valerie Profumo became famous again for standing by her man. ‘When I was reading her son David’s book about her I rang my mum going, “I’m furious! Why didn’t she leave him? She could have left him, she had done fine by herself.’’’ And what did her mother say? ‘She said: “Those were the times.” But it’s not just that, because she loved him.’
Would Fox have done the same thing?
The girls are childlike. They seem so young in comparison to the men they were used by
‘It’s very difficult, isn’t it? I haven’t had her experiences. Theoretically, I’d have said goodbye. But what do you do if you love someone? I don’t know.’ She reflects for a moment. ‘I’d like to think that I would say: “No. I’m worth more than this. I will be better off without that pain.” We’d all like to think that. Life and love don’t always work that way.’
In the wake of the scandal, the Profumos were brought together. ‘The world shunned them. They became incredibly close. Of course it wasn’t easy, but she did get her husband back for a while.’
But then came Profumo’s famous rehabilitation, as he committed himself to charity work in the East End of London. Eventually he was made a CBE and hailed by Margaret Thatcher as a national hero, but he was not faithful to his wife. ‘She lost him again, to the charity work and to other people. There were more affairs.’
The Trial Of Christine Keeler has been described as a post-#MeToo version of the story. ‘This drama is told with an understanding of the women and how they became involved in the sexual blackmail element of it, and how they felt about that. It’s not just about the scandal’
Fox is full of admiration for her subject, who died in 1998. ‘Valerie was from a working-class family. Her dad was a sailor, a drinking sailor. I think the fact she managed to achieve independence professionally and financially as a woman at that time, before she married, was pretty extraordinary. She was an amazing woman. I could play her for ever.’
Fox is magnificent in the role, but has yet to see it in preview. If she’s down in the West Country for Christmas at her parents’ house without a telly, she will have to wait a bit longer. So as the big day looms, what is she looking forward to most about the festive period? ‘I’m meant to say all of us doing family together, aren’t I? That’s true, of course. But can I tell the truth and say something silly?’ She laughs. ‘Christmas pudding and brandy butter. I mean, it only comes around once a year! I really love that. And I so love Christmas too!’
‘The Trial Of Christine Keeler’ premieres on December 29 on BBC1, 9pm, and will be released on DVD and digital download on January 27