James starred as Mark Antony in the big-budget Rome, and plays legendary dandy Beau Brummell in a new BBC FOUR drama. He's also starred in films such as Maybe Baby and Vanity Fair, and TV dramas including Sharpe and A Dance to the Music of Time.
What's he been in?
James plays Mark Antony in Rome. He's a dashing soldier, loved both men and women. He's also coming up on the BBC playing Blackbeard in a docu-drama about the life of the famous pirate.
James career began at the Royal Shakespeare Company where he appeared in productions such as The Tempest, Macbeth and King Lear. He moved on to appear in a variety of other theatre productions alongside top stars such as Jude Law in Death of a Salesman* and Simon Callow, Rupert Graves and Joseph Fiennes in Macbeth.
He starred as Mr Lawrence in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, one of a wide variety of TV roles. He played a psychopathic rapist in Calling The Shots, and has appeared in classy period dramas such as the Channel 4 adaptation of A Dance to the Music of Time. He also appeared alongside Ciaran Hinds (Julius Caesar in Rome) in a TV version of The Mayor of Casterbridge.
James has continued to work on television and stage, but has increasingly been taking roles in big budget films. He played the alcoholic Tom Bertram in an adaptation of the Jane Austen book, Mansfield Park, and was in the Ben Elton film Maybe Baby alongside Hugh Laurie, Joely Richardson and Hustle star, Adrian Lester.
In 2004 he appeared in no less than four different films. He starred alongside Reece Witherspoon in a big adaptation of the classic novel Vanity Fair, as well as appearing in Goose!, George and the Dragon and Blessed.
Did you know?
James' hobbies include fencing, which he picked up at drama school and has enjoyed ever since, playing poker and wood sculpture.
He went to school at Sherbourne, a public school in Dorset, but wasn't happy there.
James once serenaded the girls of a neighbouring boarding school. He got through 14 verses of Greensleeves before he was was caught by a games mistress.
Personal Details
James had an 11 year relationship with Fay Ripley of Cold Feet fame.
He has a son, Joseph, with actress Holly Aird.
After he split with Holly Aird, James was seen around town with Gwyneth Paltrow. They insist their relationship was only ever platonic.
