Zorro schmorro. He’s done perfectly well in Shakespeare (most notably as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew with Shirley Henderson), I liked him as Prince Leopold in The Illusionist. But the two best Rufus years for me were undoubtedly 1994 (Will Ladislaw in the BBC version of Middlemarch) and 1995 (Seth Starkadder in Cold Comfort Farm). It’s the proposterously romantic and slightly wayward curly hair, marvellously cut cheekbones and huge, soulful eyes. The delicious voice helps of course. Oh yes, and the diffidence. Lordy. I’m coming over quite peculiar just typing this. Cold Comfort Farm is a marvellously wicked story from start to finish, so Sewell as Starkadder is icing on a splendid cake in it. Despite the soulful eyes, he’s very far from being a wimp and he shows his manly physique in this. Plenty tall and broad of shoulder and good at comedic self-deprecation too.
But it’s in Middlemarch that Sewell really hits his stride. He is the molten core at the centre of the series. You just wait for scenes that he’s in. It’s not that the other actors aren’t competent in it, they very much are, but he smoulders so much I needed smelling salts to get me through an episode.
I’m not knocking Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice. He does look fine in wet shirt and breeches, but that was blatant cheating by Andrew Davies. Jane Austen put no such thing in the novel. Will Ladislaw stays dry and clothed, which frankly, because Rufus Sewell is the man buttoned-up, is even sexier.
Nobody does moody, repressed longing like our Rufus. Now where did I put those smelling salts?
If you love Rufus, you might want to look at this post on the delicious man in Zen.
Posted by Inkface
HOLBY CITY BEHIND THE SCREEN
pauseliveaction 
He’s a Scorpio, you know.
I’m never quite sure what the right response to that should be. Is that a good thing?
Most definitely yes. It’s a known fact that at least 80% of ninjas are Scorpios.
Oh now it all becomes clear.
Oh god, yes, Rufus in Middlemarch. The. Sexiest. Thing. Ever. When Dorothea FINALLY falls into his arms right at the end of all that heart-searching and faffing about, how I envied her. Must go and watch it again.
And in CC Farm, when he turns at the door and the tv guy sees his potential… as do we all… sigh (lies in darkened room, flannel on brow, Inkface’s borrowed smelling salts to hand).
Help yourself love. Pass them round while you’re at.
He is just sex on a stick isn’t he? Tried him in Eleventh Hour? (Virgin 1, 10pm Wednesdays) Not quite so curly of locks, but still bloody delicious.
And – not that I’m on commision from the makers of Eleventh Hour, or Virgin 1 for that matter – if you like his fabulously dry sense of humour, you should google for some of the series’ promo videos online. I’d provide a link, but our work servers won’t let me near anything that exciting!
You mean like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8N9qZVYkU8 , Jo the Hat?
Quite possibly! Won’t know if it’s my fave (god must get out more) – the one where he comments about ‘the jackets’ – ’til I get home though… A stern warning comes up if you click on anything YouTubeish (not to mention Facebook, MySpace etc) at work. Speaking of which, must return nose to grindstone!
Sigh thanks for that – any of those smelling salts left? THIS (http://www.imdb.com/video/cbs/vi3430416409/) is the one with the lovely little comment about jackets that has unaccountably won my heart. Looking forward to Mr the Hat being out at work on Thursday night – inspired to dig out Taming of the Shrew now.
Did you realise that he is the great-grandson of Anna Sewell, and his middle name is “Auster”- after the proper name of the horse in the novel? And that he was supposedly taunted at school by being called “BB”? He apparently then rebelled by running away from school and entering various national hunt race courses and daubing risque slogans on horse boxes. His first autobiography (written after the early success of Middlemarch) was called “I am not Black Beauty” – but it was quickly withdrawn from sale. He also had a relapse during the subsequent filming of Cold Comfort Farm, since it was the first time he had been allowed near farm animals. They lost him for several weeks – he was said to be roaming free on the Sussex Weald – until he was caught near Plumpton, and returned under Young Farmer escort to London.
Oooh yes. See what you mean. And the jackets. Bless him. I haven’t seen him in modern times, but I might try and take a look at Eleventh Hour.
Have you seen the BBC series on Charles the II? Charles II: The Power and the Passion? He plays King Charles. That’s pretty much where I lost it for him. He is fucking unbelievable. It’s really not fair.
PedantsRevolt’s post is a bucket of swill (although top marks for creativity). Wikipedia informs us Rufus’s middle name is Frederik. And I have it on good authority that Anna Sewell never had any children.
Andew, I think ab was having a bit of fun there. The pigswill was intentional!
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