Then again, the sticky question of class is one that Stevens has been pondering for most of his life. Meeting him today in the library at Highclere Castle – the home of the 8th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, where Julian Fellowes’s period drama is filmed – he seems perfectly at home. If you knew nothing about his background, you would think that Stevens’s blood was as blue as his eyes – an impression heightened by his heroic bone structure, cut-glass accent, impeccable manners and easy charm.
Blame his education, says Stevens, who was a boarder throughout his adolescence at Tonbridge School, followed by three years reading English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he hung out with the Footlights set. “I came out of the wash, I suppose, appearing to be much more upper class than I really am. But when people accuse me of being really posh, I think, 'Hang on a minute. No, I’m not!’”
In reality, Stevens, now 28, was born in Croydon to a mother who he has never known, and was swiftly adopted by two teachers. Genetically speaking, he has no idea from where he is descended, never having wanted to track down his birth mother. Still, he says, the parents who loved and raised him were not upper class. “My dad’s family were pretty working class, actually.” His mother, for example, was a cleaner. “Her father was an architect, so one of the professional middle classes.” But definitely no blue blood.
His education, too, came courtesy of his brains rather than his parents’ bank balance, as he won a scholarship to Tonbridge. “In many ways, I realise that going to that school and to Cambridge have set me up for life,” he admits. “But, at the same time, it does help me to sympathise with some of the characters I’ve played.” He cites Nick Guest, for example, the hero of the BBC adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker Prize-winning The Line of Beauty. “He was very much a middle-class guy thrust into an upper-class world, and I do know how that feels.
“And then, of course, there’s Matthew Crawley himself. I think he’s Julian [Fellowes]’s way of introducing an insurgent middle-class character who’s there to question the status quo of class and privilege. The viewers are invited to see the strange world that he finds himself in through Matthew’s eyes.”
The success of Downton, he suggests, could be partly due to our continuing obsession with class. “Despite Tony Blair declaring that we’re now a classless society, we’re certainly not. And maybe a drama set in a time when everyone knew their place is slightly comforting.”
The first series of Downton harked back to the last era in which class was so clearly delineated. “The new series, though, kicks off in the trenches of the First World War. So the old order is about to be literally and metaphorically blown to smithereens.”
In the much-awaited eight-part series, Matthew Crawley is an officer experiencing the horrors of the Somme. Still recovering from his broken relationship with Lady Mary Crawley, he has met Lavinia Swire while on leave, become engaged and now, much to Lady Mary’s chagrin, returns to Downton to introduce her to the family.
“Of course, the audience will probably always root for Matthew and Mary to get back together, because their relationship had so much spark and passion. Mary was as tricky as Lavinia, now, is good and gentle – and although that possibly makes her the less interesting option, Julian is posing questions about love and what is likely, in the end, to bring people contentment.”
Stevens already has his own answer to that. He is very happily married to South African jazz vocalist-turned-singing teacher, Susie Hariet. “I’m lucky to be married to someone who entirely gets what I do. She is totally sympathetic to the actor’s life. Her own mother was an actress, so she sort of grew up with it.”
They met in 2006, when they were appearing at different theatres in Sheffield. “I was getting my kit off every night at the Crucible doing The Romans in Britain, and she was appearing in a musical. We met and it was pretty instant.”
He wonders if Susie’s own view of class may, subconsciously, have been part of the attraction. “She has absolutely no concept of the British class system and, after 10 years here she’s still trying to work it out. I suppose it was refreshing to meet someone who had the same level of bemusement about it as me.”
The couple now have a 21-month-old daughter, Willow. Fatherhood is, he says, “something every actor should do. And I certainly know enough actors who are practising,” he laughs. “In my case, it made me rethink the way I approach work. It feels both more – and less – important. I want to spend as much time as I can with my family, yet I’m aware of having to bring home the bacon. I also want Willow to be proud of me and to be able to point to the screen and say, 'There’s Daddy.’”
Watching his tiny daughter grow has made him think again about his own roots. He and his younger brother were adopted from different mothers. “I don’t know much about my biological background. But I do know that I’ve always been the idiot who got up on stage and wanted to perform from a very young age. So it could be in my nature. I don’t know.”
While not entirely ruling out the possibility of some day looking for his birth family, his reluctance so far, one suspects, comes from his loyalty towards his parents. He could not, he says, have wanted for a more supportive or loving family to have grown up in. “And now that both my brother and I have children of our own, it’s brought the family even closer.
“Right now, we’re about to celebrate my mum and dad’s 40th wedding anniversary, and we’ll all be together in Walberswick in Suffolk. It’s a place that’s always been important to us. I even proposed to my wife there.”
Stevens’s career started when the director Sir Peter Hall spotted him as a first-year undergraduate acting alongside his daughter Rebecca in a Footlights production of Macbeth. He went on to work extensively with Hall, and was nominated in 2005 for the Ian Charleson Award for his portrayal of Orlando in As You Like It. Other roles since have included Edward Ferrars in the BBC’s Sense and Sensibility. “But Downton is the thing that seems to have really opened doors.”
Recently, he and other members of the cast were invited to the Cartier International Polo Day at the Guards Polo Club in Windsor. “Like the Belgravia dinner, it was one of those occasions where you’re in a completely different element. Everybody at our lunch table was extremely sweet about the show, but they also mostly lived in enormous country piles with lots of horses. But then, as I discovered, if you play polo you need about 11 horses each for every game. I’m learning all the time.”
The learning curve includes a recent stint in Hollywood filming Vamps – “a romantic comedy with fangs” – which also stars Alicia Silverstone and Susan Sarandon.
Modestly, he doubts he’d have been cast had it not been for Downton. “Fortunately, the Americans also love the show. In their case, they have a different class system to ours – a vast and powerful middle class but no earls or barons of their own. That’s probably why they adore shows like Downton, which have lots and lots of them.”
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