Actor Robert Bathurst on playing Scrooge in Dolly Parton’s A Christmas Carol-Sue Crawford-Entertainment – Metro

Robert Bathurst talks prepping for his new role in A Christmas Carol (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

The Cold Feet actor, 65, on his passion for horse racing, the shock success of Cold Feet and meeting a James Bond producer.

You’re starring in Dolly Parton’s musical version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens…

What I love about it is that it’s an unexpected, unusual, rather left-field idea, which really works. I know there are five other Christmas Carols going on and they’re all going to be great, but we’re the only one with added Dolly!

Are you a fan of Dolly Parton then?

I’ve discovered her over the past month and a half. I knew, of course, of Jolene and some of the more well-known hits but I didn’t know much more about her. I’ve now been reading and listening to a lot of Dolly and I think she’s astonishing.

I like her musicality, her lyrics and her pragmatism – the fact that she absolutely knew what she wanted from a very early age. She’s witty, sharp and emotional and she’s sustained her brand into its seventh decade now. I’ve become a huge admirer of her.

So how has A Christmas Carol moved from Dickensian England to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee?

Dolly Parton has written the music and lyrics for the new production (Picture: Shutterstock)

It’s a really canny transition from Victorian London to the depression-era Appalachian Mountains in 1936, where there were Dickensian amounts of poverty in the hills. Dolly knows the mountains and grew up in them. Scrooge is from Tennessee and he’s a capitalist who has managed to take over the town. He’s somebody who doesn’t like people particularly, and as far as he’s concerned profit is everything. So, in that sense, it’s exactly the same.

Scrooge has been played by countless famous actors – does that make you nervous?

I’m ignoring all that! I don’t want to recreate Alastair Sim in 1951, or any of the others. And the fact that it’s set in Tennessee means I can ignore it. I’ve never played Scrooge before in any form, nor have I done a musical before, so it’s a double first for me.

Is it true that you auditioned to play James Bond?

I did go and meet Barbara Broccoli but only when Timothy Dalton had already been cast. They were just waiting for him to sign, so they were treading water by seeing a few also-rans, so there was never any proper audition. I don’t do stunts – hand-to-hand irony is about as dangerous as I get!

You made your name in ITV show Cold Feet – did you have any idea it was going to be a hit?

Timothy Dalton played James Bond twice (Picture: Shutterstock)

Nobody did. It was a 50-minute comedy drama with no plans for a series. When we made it, I thought it was a decent bit of work, but nobody saw it or wrote about it. Then it won an award – the Golden Rose of Montreux – and ITV suddenly decided it was really rather good and commissioned a series.

After a 13-year break Cold Feet was brought back and then ‘rested’ in 2020. Could it come back again?

There’s no sign of that coming from the broadcaster or the writer at the moment, so chances are it’s being permanently rested. The series did allow us to get older, so in five years maybe there would be a reason for having a look at those characters again in their 70s. But who knows, it’s not my call.

Do you still have a following from comedy series Toast Of London?

I loved Toast. It was great fun and people stop me now – ten years after it was made – and say they’ve just discovered it and started binge-watching. It was a very quiet event – when the first series went out nobody watched it – and then the second series won an award. It’s the slowest-burn show I’ve come across. It’s a difficult show to describe. In the first episode I had to sleep with a Bruce Forsyth lookalike – it’s got an oddness to it!

Will you ever consider retiring?

For a few years I was on a committee with a whole load of actors. Some of them were over 80 and they were all moaning on about how their agent hadn’t rung! So actors find it very difficult to retire.

What hobbies do you enjoy?

I like horse racing and I go whenever I can. I’m not that interested in gambling but I like the smell of horses and the language of horse racing and the journalism. I love the people, the stories and the uncompromisingly adult attitude to risk, which is quite rare in our more cautious times.

More: Sixty Seconds

Are you a rider?

I’ve ridden. I was filming a drama in Hungary called The Pillars Of The Earth and I fell off a horse. I hurt my back and had to have some realignment. Luckily I fell on something soft, but it was such a long way down that I thought, ‘I’m not doing this again.’

Do you have any remaining ambitions?

I had my own stage show at the Edinburgh Festival this summer, which was a project I’ve been working on for ten years. But otherwise I’ve always enjoyed surprises. A Christmas Carol is a surprise. I’m so glad it’s come my way.

smokymountainchristmascarol.com

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