TDN Weekend

Let's say you had persevered with act- ing, your first love. Whether stage or screen – and with no bar on account of gender, race or even height (!) – which role would you most like to have played? I have to say James Bond. I was acting from around 10 to 24, and it was one of those things people would joke about: "Maybe if you weren't so tall, Harry, you could play Bond." I do think it would have been great fun. But having said that, I was also a great fan of John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, people like that. So on the more serious side, of course I would have loved one of the clas- sical roles – yes, an RSC Hamlet or some- thing like that, the same as everyone else. With that expertise in mind, what's your No 1 film? Too hard? Okay, we'll give you three. I love Brief Encounter, it's just magical, one of the great romantic films and so thought-provoking, so beautifully direct- ed. Then there's Zulu. There are moments you could just watch over and over again, Michael Caine is brilliant, Stanley Baker is awesome, and the cinematography is fan- tastic. And Dances With Wolves, the score is out of this world and it's a landscape I know so well. Yes, tell us a bit about those Wild West connections of yours. When I go to my mother's house in Wyo- ming, I read all these great old books of the frontier days: "This morning was a diffi- cult morning: the grizzly is still tracking us, or the Native Americans, or the threatened storm has struck etc." It's such an extraor- dinary part of American history, and so recent. Nothing has changed: that rock's still there; that tree's still there. My uncle and my first cousin live on the edge of the Cheyenne reservation; in fact, my cousin teaches Cheyenne children. So what's your perfect day out? Is it on the Wyoming ranch? Yes, that's easy. It would be heading off at the crack of dawn with my first cousin Paul Wallop and my second cousin Paul Deni- son, both of whom – apart from being very special, unspoilt people – are mountain men at heart. And we'd drive an hour or so into the Bighorn Mountains, and then go off with our rucksacks and the rest of our gear, until finding a place to fish for the day. You might see bear, you might see moose, you won't see mountain lions but they're around; you're climbing over rocks, negotiating rapids, you feel you're risking life and limb out there – yet somehow you feel so safe, because those two are so amazing at what they do. And then you come back late evening and realise that this is probably what could keep you sane, if only you could do it more often. And you also re- alise what it was that made my great-grandfather come here – and stay here. 66

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