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.