So shy as a boy that he’d hide at his own birthday parties, Matthew Macfadyen has come out of his shell to become one of Britain’s best-loved actors, writes Emma Higginbotham

For anyone who’s watched Succession, it’s no surprise that HBO’s deliciously dark comedy-drama about the uber-rich, uber-awful Roy family has been hailed as one of the greatest television series of all time.

For anyone who hasn’t watched Succession, here’s a quick summary. A pitch-perfect study of greed, pride and betrayal, it focuses on monstrous tycoon Logan Roy – the head of a New York-based media and entertainment empire – and his (mostly) despicable children as they grapple for their ailing father’s crown.

But while Logan (Brian Cox) and the Roy siblings take centre stage, it’s his son-in-law Tom Wambsgans, played with a beguiling blend of smarm and vulnerability by Matthew Macfadyen, who steals the show.

As Tom – oily outsider, corporate climber, cuckolded husband – the British actor pulls off that rarest of feats: making us fall in love with a character who’s essentially appalling.

“On the page, the weasely Wambsgans felt a long way from me, so it was tremendously freeing to play him,” says Matthew, who’s clean-shaven again after filming the Waitrose Christmas ad a few weeks ago. “I think the show just worked — the confluence of a simple but brilliant narrative, dazzling writing, acting, directing, production design and music, and those universal themes of money, power, family, fear, love. And it was very funny, too.”

Much of that humour comes courtesy of Tom and his gormless lackey, Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun), the only family member who’s even further down the pecking order. As soon as Tom’s eyes glitter mischievously, you know what’s coming next. Whether he’s lobbing water bottles at Greg’s head, euphorically upending his desk, or teasing him about his date’s ‘ludicrously capacious’ handbag, the Tom ‘n’ Greg two-handers make for some of Succession’s most memorable moments.

“Nick Braun — I adore that man. He’s such a sweet and lovely guy, and such an instinctive, imaginative, brilliant actor,” says Matthew. “We just somehow hit the ground running from the pilot episode, and the Tom and Greg relationship just evolved in its own strange, aggressive, hilarious and tender way from that point on.

“We had terrible trouble with laughing uncontrollably in scenes where there was absolutely no laughter,” he adds. “It became a real problem. Sometimes we’d meet up days before to run the lines over and over till we got the giggles out of our system. It never really worked. The fear of corpsing was really paralysing sometimes, but it was good fun.”

Just as he’s wholly convincing as the giddy bully, so too can Matthew light up the screen as Logan’s slimy subordinate, or as the wounded, puppy-eyed husband of Shiv Roy, who he adores (the feeling is not mutual). And although he’s treated with disdain by the entire family, Tom has the last laugh when it’s he, rather than one of the warring siblings, who eventually succeeds to the Waystar RoyCo throne.

Matthew has been rewarded in real life too, bagging a Golden Globe, two Baftas and two Emmys for the role. But he insists that the adulation hasn’t gone to his head. “Awards are nice, but that’s all they are,” he says. “They don’t make you a better actor, or any less nervous before a new job.”

You’d think after three decades (“30 years of fannying about, dressing up and saying other people's words”), nerves wouldn’t be an issue, but apparently so. “Every single job you feel terrified,” he admits. “No matter how much you've done or, how garlanded you are, every job you start from nothing, thinking ‘Oh God, I’m going to be found out.’”

Born in Norfolk to Meinir, a drama teacher, and Martin, who worked in the oil business, his early years were spent moving around with his father’s job, including a stint in Jakarta, Indonesia: “a really exciting, lovely time, and a big adventure – for my mum and dad too”. But young Matthew didn’t have the show-off traits you’d normally associate with a wannabe actor.

“As a boy, I was happy but pretty shy,” he recalls. “I used to get terribly nervous before birthday parties, especially my own. I’d go and hide somewhere in the house, and my poor mother would have to find me and drag me out as everyone arrived.

“Sinéad Cusack once said that acting is ‘the shy person’s revenge on the world’, and maybe there’s some truth in that. It’s curiously liberating to pretend to be someone else on stage or screen.”

He first caught the bug as one of the three wise men in his primary school’s Nativity. “I remember the absolute thrill and excitement of being given a part to play, and the realisation that we’d spend time together practising and wearing different clothes, and that people would actually come and watch us,” he says. “It was impossibly exciting.

“I just felt very happy on stage, and continued to do so through school as I did more and more plays. It’s a collective endeavour, rehearsing and putting on a show, and there’s something wonderful and addictive about getting together and bringing something to life.”

At 17, Matthew won a place at Rada, and has been busy ever since, playing parts as varied as Mr Darcy in the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice and Charles Ingram, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’s ‘coughing major’, in the ITV drama Quiz. A career highlight? He says it’s hard to choose after 30 years.

“I’ve been very lucky in the parts I’ve played, and the people I’ve worked with. A couple of things stand out. I played Benedick in a touring production of Much Ado About Nothing when I was 23. What a fantastic experience that was. We toured round the world — New York, Moscow, Barcelona, the West End. A few years later I worked with Peter Kosminsky on the BBC television film Warriors, about peacekeepers in Bosnia, and again that was a formative and singular experience. And, of course, Spooks.”

A British take on US hit 24, with split screens and buttock-clenching action scenes, Spooks saw Matthew playing another (but altogether more sensible) Tom – MI5 agent Tom Quinn. It was the stylish BBC spy drama that first thrust him into the public eye back in 2002, but he has a soft spot for Spooks for a more personal reason. “One of my fellow spies on that show was Keeley Hawes. It was our 20th wedding anniversary the other week.”

Matthew has children Maggie, 20 next month, and Ralph, 18, with the acclaimed actress, as well as stepson Myles from Keeley’s first marriage. They’ve since worked together, but only rarely. “I did a silly cameo on a show she did called Ashes to Ashes, and we did Stonehouse a couple of years ago, about an MP who faked his own death in the 70s. Everyone says, ‘Oh, how was it?’ And you go, ‘Well, it was lovely. It was great. I really like her!’”

For all his roles so far, it’s inevitable that Matthew is known first and foremost for Succession. Running for four series from 2018, the caustic comedy-drama has accumulated more than 80 major awards. Did he suspect how big it would be? “Not initially,” he admits.

“The pilot was quite an amazing thing to read – twisty and spiky and odd. Then, as the episodes came in, and you develop these relationships, you think, oh, this is good! This is funny, and weird, and moving. But you never quite know how it's going to land. It was a slow burn. And they're all so revolting. It's like, ‘Why do I care?!’”

Succession became a word-of-mouth sensation, and fans were distraught when British creator Jesse Armstrong announced that the fourth season, airing in spring 2023, would be the last. And while Logan’s eventual death was inevitable (the clue is in the title), nobody could have predicted he’d meet his maker in an aeroplane toilet as early as episode three. When did Matthew find out?

“Jesse got a bunch of us on Zoom before we started shooting, and told us that they were going to kill him off. He'd taken Brian out for lunch. I bet Jesse was scared! But it was a master stroke, because you don't see it coming. And it's so banal. It's all offstage – you just see his legs, so it's all in your imagination. The king is dead. Brilliant.”

Throughout the filming, public interest in the show was so intense that Brian Cox would appear on set to throw people off the scent of Logan’s early death – even attending his own funeral. Nor could the rest of the cast avoid the attention. “It was bumpy walking down the road in New York because you’d get stopped,” recalls Matthew. “Especially Nick, who's six foot seven. But that's the downside of the upside. That's fine. If you do a telly that has a bit of a splash, you get noticed a lot, and then it dribbles away.

“It was just fun. Apart from anything else, it was just a really lovely group of people. Actors always say that, but it really was. I miss them. I mean, I don't miss playing Tom, because you can't keep playing the same character, but I miss getting together with that bunch.”

Matthew worked with another fun bunch – including former on-screen wife Sian Clifford, who played Diana Ingram in Quiz – when he took on the role of The Detective in this year’s Waitrose Christmas ad. “There honestly wasn’t anything not to enjoy about it,” he says.

“First of all, the idea of a ‘whodunnit’, where one of the family steals the irresistible pudding, was just a delightfully fun and irreverent conceit for a Christmas commercial. I think it manages to capture in a really light and witty way the essence of Christmas get-togethers, with all the festive family tension and excitement simmering under the surface, with a nice dose of Cluedo and Knives Out thrown in. A friend of mine texted me and said ‘This is just what we need’.

“Another lovely aspect to it was being on set with so many talented people, and it was a total treat to be reunited with Sian.”

The thieving culprit, revealed in a final ad earlier this week, turned out to be dad Steve, who’d snapped after taking on one too many kitchen duties. But, says Matthew, it could’ve been any of them. “They're all furious!” he laughs. As for his own Christmas, it’ll be spent at home in London, “resenting the thought of washing up, dreaming about sunny beaches, and fighting a losing battle with a tin of Quality Street.”

Matthew turned 50 last month, but didn’t have a big birthday bash (“my idea of hell”), so there was no need to shyly hide away in the house. Instead he flew to Athens, where Keeley was filming. Because the best thing about being Matthew Macfadyen is not the acting, nor the acclaim that his chosen career brings. “The best thing about being me? I’d say my family and friends, who I love and who love me,” he says. “That’s the point of all this, isn’t it?”

:: Listen to Matthew Macfadyen on this week’s episode of Dish – Waitrose.com/dish

FOOD BITES

Do you cook? I do, but less and less. I really got into it in my 30s. It was a combination of greed and liking the kit – I can lose hours in kitchen shops. I like sharpening knives, and there's a whole world of cast iron. It's very nerdy.

Favourite pasta? Pasta alla Norma, if it's good. If it's bad, it's awful. Or a sausage pasta with fennel and cream.

Does Yorkshire Pudding belong on a Christmas dinner plate? I don't think so, but my kids do, and they win. At some point in the meal they'll put everything into the Yorkshire pudding and start eating it like a sandwich.

Sunday roast of choice? Fillet of beef, but I'm less meaty as I get older.

Boxing Day lunch? My grandma on my dad's side was Scottish, and she called them ‘emiljigs’ – basically it's just everything fried up in a big pan.

An edited version of this interview appeared in Waitrose Weekend in November 2024 (c) Waitrose