Downton's Rob James-Collier: 'I found it easier' having gay romances

Downton Abbey star Rob James-Collier has said it's 'easier' playing a gay character in the hit TV drama because his wife doesn't get jealous about his on-screen romances.

The actor, whose character Thomas Barrow works as a servant in the fictional country house, is on this Saturday's The Jonathan Ross Show with his co-star, Joanne Froggatt.

He told Jonathan: "I found it easier. The way I was thinking was that if you kiss a girl you worry about: 1) How big her boyfriend is; 2) Is he in the building watching and is he going to kick the s**t out of you?; and 3) What is my missus going to think of it?

"So we went to the BFI for a big unveiling on the cinema screen, and the missus knew it (the kiss) was coming, and we were all sitting watching it and I thought 'Nice one, she can't accuse me of anything', and the missus turned to me and said 'You've never kissed me like that!'"

CATEGORIES

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.