Downton Abbey star Julian Ovenden's father prepares for nudity
Daniel Santos The Rev Canon John Ovenden has already had to avert his eyes as his daughter- in-law Kate Royal appeared in a state of undress in Der Rosenkavalier at Glyndebourne. Now, the former chaplain to the Queen faces the prospect of seeing his son Julian, the Downton Abbey star who is married to Kate, in his birthday suit in My Night With Reg at the Donmar Theatre in London.
“It is of course just a job to them, but I don’t think I am being entirely unreasonable when I say that it seems a bit odd to me to have to contemplate my son and daughter-in-law naked,” he tells me. “To be fair to Kate, I think that she was wearing a body stocking, but I still thought it only right to look intently at my shoes. With Julian, I understand I am going to get the Full Monty.”
The late Kevin Elyot’s play, which opened last night, is about a group of homosexual men dealing with Aids in Eighties Britain and it offers Julian quite a change of pace after Downton Abbey, Foyle’s War and a succession of hit musicals. Inevitably, however, it raises the issue of how his father stands on the issue of gay marriage.
“I am very happy about it, actually,” he says. “This is life, and we have to approach it as it is. Modern theatre audiences — irrespective of the ages or backgrounds of the people in them — can watch plays like this and not see anything startling about them. Times change.”
The Queen enjoys her trips to the theatre, but I suggested My Night With Reg may not necessarily be on her must-see list. “I don’t know about that,” he says. “We will have to wait and see.”
