Stuart Martin Says Goodbye to Miss Scarlet and The Duke
After four seasons, William “The Duke” Wellington has officially departed from London and his role at Scotland Yard to embark on a new journey across the pond in New York City. In an all-new interview with the MASTERPIECE Studio podcast, actor Stuart Martin revealed how he came to the difficult decision to leave the series, what it was like saying goodbye, and his parting message to fans of the series.
Click here to listen to the full podcast interview with Martin, as well as the creative duo behind the world of Miss Scarlet and The Duke, Rachael New and Ben Edwards.
- 1.
How he came to the decision to leave
“It was very tough. It was very, very tough,” Martin confessed during the podcast episode. But for Martin, no matter how hard the decision was, he believes that it was the right one for the story.
“My feeling was that there’s something really interesting in him leaving,” he explained, discussing how William’s decision to leave brought the relationship between he and Eliza to an ultimate head. “You get to put it all on the line, really, and we get to see [Eliza and Duke] get to a moment that they probably wouldn’t get to if you were going to continue. Or certainly you’d have to pull them back from it.”
- 2.
What his last day was like
Saying goodbye to the cast and crew on his last day was also no easy feat — especially for someone like Martin who, he admitted, struggles with making grand speeches and farewells.
“I remember… my last scene was in the morgue, with lovely Simon [Ludders], he’s just brilliant. I love him. It was so lovely. Everyone came in. I’m a terrible, terrible, nervous speech maker. I get anxiety about it. I get a hot head. My ears go bright red. I hate it. For some reason I thought, I’m going to say some words because I couldn’t not just say thank you to the amazing crew and everyone out there. I don’t quite know what I said. It wasn’t a speech, but I think I said thank you. They’re such a wonderful family.”
But, he said, in his mind, he couldn’t help but think to himself, “God, I love this show. I love everything about it.”
- 3.
What he's taking away from the experience
Reflecting on his time on the series, Martin had nothing but gratitude to share about the entire experience — especially for creator Rachael New for taking a chance on him in the first place. “What I loved about Rachael was we went and met, Kate [Phillips] was obviously already on board, and we went and met in a restaurant in Soho… We chatted, she had looked at my stuff…and she knew what everyone had done, and that’s why she called us in. And I loved the fact that it was just like, ‘Yep, I like Stuart, he’s the Duke.’ And she backed that, against everyone, and it was brilliant. And I’ve always gone, that’s the way you do it. She’s amazing… I’m always so appreciative that she backed that, and she took a chance.”
He went on to say that it’s been “such a beautiful four years of [his] life” and an experience he’ll always look back on fondly. “There’s this whole world that we have now…that feels like [it] will always be part of my life. It feels much bigger than other series I’ve done. I feel very linked to this world and this show. And it kind of follows you, you know? I’m over in the [United States] and I’ll meet someone, and they’ll come up to me and say how much they love the show and that is such a lovely thing.”
- 4.
His message to fans
“The amazing thing about [Miss Scarlet and The Duke]…it was really loved by this brilliant fan base, the Scarleteers. They were just such warm, lovely fans who got as passionate about it as you did. And over the last four or five years, they’ve stuck with it and had really interesting conversations about it.”
To those fans, he said, “I would just thank them for that support and that love that they’ve given the show and that they’ve given Duke.” And, he added, “Hopefully, hopefully they don’t hate me.”
- 5.
The one item he wishes he took with him from set
And, of course, we had to know — did he take any Duke mementos from the set with him? “No, and I should have,” he confessed. “I wish I’d taken my watch! I had that watch for four seasons.”
