DAVID BAMBER

David Bamber plays John Starkey.

David Bamber enjoyed undergoing a change of character to play a children's entertainer in MIDSOMER MURDERS.

“I loved playing him because he is like nothing I normally do. Being brash and doing funny voices, and that inane endless, clichéd good humour doesn't come easily. But when I had the microphone in my hand it just started – which was very strange.

“John is a children's entertainer and dresses rather brashly when he is working, and has adopted a slightly tweedy look in normal life. When you have the costume on, everyone feels impelled to say something as you walked by, so you have to keep the smile on because that's what he would have done,” says David.

“But I think I showed his sadness too. He has a failing, sad marriage, and looks elsewhere for his satisfaction, both emotionally and in terms of friendship. He is childless, although he obviously relates to children, and wants to do more in his career but that has passed him by, as he is in advanced middle age.”

To make up for his unhappiness at home with his wife Grace (Caroline Goodall), who runs a riding stables, John throws himself into the festivities in his village of Midsomer Barton.

“It's a very small world that he inhabits, but he would rather be a funny character in a small pond than an unknown in a big world. I think the village is a bit like the family that he never had – he connects with them far better than his family. He would rather stay in the village all day than go back to the stables to spend a lonely evening in the kitchen with a bottle of wine.”

David felt at home filming the episode.

“My wife Julia Swift was a red herring in an episode set around bell ringers. So it was a great pleasure to do one myself and John Nettles makes it fun for everyone.”

David was recently seen on screen as Cicero in the BBC's Rome and is now working on a second series. He also appeared in the West End with Richard E Grant and Anthony Head in a major new revival of Simon Gray's classic comedy Otherwise Engaged.

His other work includes Pollyanna, I Capture The Castle, The Bourne Identity, Daniel Deronda, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Neville's Island, Chalk, The Buddha of Suburbia and Pride and Prejudice.

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