James Wilby Web -

My Favourite Things – Great British Life magazine Interview

Posted by admin on Apr 26, 2025

Favourite role?

Maurice because very, very rarely is a piece of theatre or film about the character you’re playing, and I was in every scene bar one. And it was a harmonious experience with the director James Ivory at the helm. He was just so supportive, inventive and wonderful. And I got on very well with my two co-stars Hugh Grant and Rupert Graves, and that also doesn’t always happen.

Favourite playwright?

On one level, I love Stoppard but then I find you could say some people would argue he has a slightly particular frothy style in his use of language, and on another level I’d say Shakespeare because it’s so profound.

Favourite director?

James Ivory, because he’s one of those directors who has an amazing eye, and also an amazing ear.

Favourite co-star?

I loved working with Jonathan Pryce in Regeneration. What’s interesting about really wonderful actors is you’ve just got to up your game. Also, Anthony Hopkins on Howards End, and Helen McCrory, who’s sadly died now, on Witness Against Hitler.

Favourite theatre?

For the structure of the building, Glyndebourne. It seems to be a celebration of theatre, I’d love to do a play there, to direct a play, but I suppose it’s not allowed. And the speed at which you can get out of it and into it and the bars and the restaurants, and the grounds – everything about it is a delightful experience before you’ve even watched whatever you’re going to watch. The sight lines are so good, you can be quite far back and you still get an amazing experience and that’s very rare in theatres.

Favourite location where you’ve filmed?

Canaima in Venezuela – you had to take a little prop airplane, land on a dirt runway, and there was just a sort of club, and it had about 20 chalets and a central dining space. It looked as though it was on a lake. And to the right of the lake were these massive waterfalls. It was just amazing and we were filming A Handful of Dust there for a week, and we all had to share one of these chalets because there wasn’t enough of them for the entire crew. I shared with one of the actors who got very ill and went to bed at six in the evening. So I took my script on a boat, a long canoe, and under the starlight I was easily able to read and learn my lines for the next day. Charles Sturridge directed it for ITV, but it was a feature film with Kristin Scott Thomas, Rupert Graves and Alec Guinness.

Favourite thing about yourself?

Oh, bloody hell. That’s just vanity. I’m a survivor.

Favourite thing about your work/career?

I love acting. It’s a lucky thing because I’ve actually had not such a great career over the last 10 years, but when I get a chance, off I go and have a ball. I enjoy the whole thing, putting on the costume, the silliness of it all, and I revert to being a child every time. I love the theatre too although it’s much harder work for different reasons.

Favourite saying?

In The Prophet, a book of sayings by Kahlil Gibran, there’s one that really caught my eye, and I’ve followed it – and it’s not necessarily done me any favours as I’m sure I’ve upset so many people in my business that I don’t work as much as I should – but it’s:‘most of us hover deviously between mute rebellion and prattling submission’.

Favourite house you’ve ever lived in?

The house we live in now near Arlington Reservoir.

Favourite place to walk?

Abbot’s Wood, it’s just literally five, 10 minutes away from our house. You can get lost in it, it’s got so many different parts. I know it so well now, but at first, I had to pinpoint where the sun was so I could navigate my way home again. It’s probably about 10 square miles.

Favourite thing to do on a day off locally?

Going fishing with my friend. We go down to Seaford or Newhaven. We’re after things like bass and black hawk but we catch very little. Fifteen years ago you’d be pulling them out.

Favourite site in Sussex?

I do love the Pavilion [in Brighton].

Favourite drink?

Red wine. Bordeaux, claret.

Favourite thing about Sussex?

I feel obliged to be within striking distance of London because of my career. I’m always going into London for one reason or another, either to work there, do a costume fitting or a casting, so to be miles away seems counterproductive. Sussex has a lovely quality, the sea, as well as the countryside. I think it’s quite interesting that where I am now, which is east of Lewes, is more rural and less stock-brokerly-belty than it was on the west side when I was in Plumpton.

Favourite decision you’ve ever made?

To become an actor. It was quite hard because I read maths at university and my father was a businessman and I think he was rubbing his hands and knees together that I would end up as an accountant or a banker. And I suddenly decided I wanted to be an actor, which rather threw him. He didn’t put tremendous pressure on me not to but he kept pointing out that 90% of your profession are unemployed at any one point. I’m a lazy individual so the idea of sitting behind a desk doing accounting or banking didn’t really appeal to me but the idea of playing in a room with lots of others really did.

Favourite place at home?

My study I suppose, get away from everyone, and sit there and do nothing, or learn my lines.

Favourite way to relax?

Probably doing The Times’ cryptic crossword. I do it every day, I’m an addict. What it does is it shuts me down in terms of anything else, so I’m not pondering and worrying about the worries of life. I also do Sudokus, the killer ones, and I’m also rather good at those as well.

Favourite time of day?

Just before dinner, let’s say six o’clock, and you can have a drink.

Favourite season?

Spring. I love the idea that summer’s about to happen and the buds are coming out. I just find it just electric – the garden springs to life and you think, God, where did all that come from?

Favourite Sussex restaurant?

I refuse to spend heaps of money on food. It would be somewhere quite cheap, I’m a Yorkshireman. Also, when you’re out in the country, it’s almost nicer to cook something for yourself than get in the car.

Favourite sport?

To play, tennis and to watch and to play, even though I have a sort of love-hate relationship with it, would be rugby. If England are playing rugby, I have to watch them. I played it to quite a high level as a school kid, even at university, until I realised they were all just too big.

Favourite item of clothing?

A black linen suit that I left on a train which really upset me.

Least favourite thing?

A bunch of middle-aged men in their cycling gear, taking up the road, thinking they’re the bees-knees and just in the ****ing way and they can ***ger off.

Plans for April?

TV series ‘I Jake White’ out towards the end of the year.

Source: https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/

British life magazine online interview

The star selling Camilla’s childhood home: House where Duchess of Cornwall grew up

Posted by admin on Aug 16, 2014

Actor James Wilby’s home is clearly one people don’t like to leave. James, best known for his aristocratic roles in Maurice, Gosford Park and A Handful Of Dust, has lived here for 18 years.

He and his wife Shana brought up their four children in the one-time rectory set in five acres at the foot of the South Downs in East Sussex.

And they are not the only long-term residents in the Grade II listed house’s history. They bought it from Camilla Parker Bowles’s father Major Bruce Shand, then a widower, whose home it was for 45 years.

amilla has described her childhood here as ‘perfect in every way’. It’s easy to imagine a perfect childhood here.

The Laines, on the edge of Plumpton village near Lewes, has a paddock, wide lawns for playing games, a secret garden, a swimming pool and tennis court.

It is a rambling, quirky home built on a slope and spread over three floors. Partly 18th Century and partly 19th, it manages to look different from all four sides.

The main rooms have high ceilings and large Georgian windows with wonderful views of the garden and Downs.

Now that all but the youngest of their children – three boys and a girl aged between 25 and 13 – are flying the nest, James, 56, and Shana, 55, have decided it’s time to downsize.

The seven-bedroom house, which also has a three/four-bedroom cottage, is on the market for £3.25 million.

The only alterations the Wilbys made since the Major’s day were to the kitchen and the room above, the oldest part of the house.

Although the kitchen is on the lower ground floor, it’s still light, with a row of windows on one side. It’s a lovely, long, farmhouse-style family kitchen with an Aga, a table in the middle and a cosy sitting area.

On the ground floor it’s a bit like Cluedo, with a drawing room, billiard room, Gothic-style conservatory, dining room, sitting room, James’s study and a playroom.

Every room has its own character. ‘They’re all full of light, with gorgeous views. Even the downstairs loo has a view,’ says Shana.

It was a case of one extreme to another when James and Shana moved here from London with three small children, looking for more space.

Neither had particular connections with Sussex but Shana knew someone in the area who gave them the brochure for The Laines. They fell for it straight away.

‘We went from a flat in Notting Hill to this,’ says James. ‘We didn’t know much about gardening when we arrived.’

The gardens are fabulous, a series of ‘rooms’ divided by yew hedges with clipped doorways leading from one to the other.

‘As an actor you get time between jobs so I’ve been able to do quite a lot in the garden,’ says James.

He also built a little wooden house at the bottom of the garden.

‘I made it for the kids but they didn’t use it much when they were younger,’ he says. ‘Once they became teenagers they disappeared down there to drink beer.’

Laines Cottage, once lived in by staff, has been let by James and Shana as a useful source of income.

There’s no doubt they will miss both house and garden, but there’s no shortage of happy memories. ‘We’ve had some great parties here,’ says James.

Source: Daily Mail

camila's home online interview