'Succession's Matthew Macfadyen, Keeley Hawes 'Had Fun On Stonehouse'

Succession star Matthew Macfadyen, who stole the rug from under the warring Roys by betraying wife Shiv last season, has got the seal of approval for his performance in upcoming drama Stonehouse from his real-life wife and co-star Keeley Hawes.

Macfadyen has earned plaudits worldwide and been twice Emmy nominated for his portrayal of seemingly spineless Tom Wambsgans in HBO’s award-winning comedy-drama. Next he will appear on screen playing another wriggly character, the 1970s-era British politician John Stonehouse, who famously faked his own death in Florida in 1974, leaving a pile of clothes on the beach in Miami, only to turn up in Melbourne, Australia, where he was spotted by police, arrested and shipped back to the UK.

Macfadyen will co-star with Hawes – one of the UK’s most recognisable actresses with roles in It’s A Sin, Bodyguard and The Durrells – as Stonehouse and his wife, and Hawes has revealed that acting alongside her husband was a delight.

“We just had far too nice a time,” Hawes told The Guardian this weekend. “There’s this feeling of: ‘They’re married, how’s this going to be?’ Ultimately, he’s an actor that I would have loved to work with anyway. So yes, it was a joy.”

The couple first met when they both appeared in BBC spy drama Spooks (titled MI-5 in the US) two decades ago. Since then, both have achieved great success, although Hawes has stressed that she had to start her own production company to ensure she continued creating roles for herself and other actresses her age.

She told The Guardian, “I thought, well, if I want to keep working, I’m going to have to be proactive about it. I’m lucky enough to be in a position where I can talk to writers and do what I’m doing, but it’s still about creating work for me and other women my age, and being as diverse as possible. Because we still need change in the industry.”

Hawes’s company Buddy Club Productions, in association with Dancing Ledge Productions, has made her next project, a BBC drama Crossfire, which sees her cast as a mother on a family holiday forced to protect her children, after a sniper starts shooting at a luxurious holiday resort.

Stonehouse will be shown on ITV’s new streaming service ITVX, set to launch later this autumn and replace ITV’s current Hub. It will come to Britbox in the US.