British actor Ben Daniels just about knocked my socks off with his rakish but suave hotness in Aristocrats, and I always wondered why he wasn’t in more frock flicks! Well I finally caved and binged The Crown, and color me surprised when he showed up as the older and similarly bad-boy-hot Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, husband to Princess Margaret. I immediately set off to find out which other productions I had missed his blonde debonair self in, and here’s the result!
As always, there’s a few things I can’t find. These include:
- Striemar in Freedom Fighter (1988)
- Rogers in The Bridge (1991)
- Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet (1994)
Norman Cubitt in The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries (1993)
A mystery/detective series set just after World War II.
Jonathan in David (1997)
A TV miniseries about a Biblical story.
Augustin Robert in Passion in the Desert (1997)
The adventures of a young French officer in 1798 Egypt during the Napoleonic invasion.
Lord Kildare in Aristocrats (1999)
A fabulous bio-series about the Lennox sisters, four aristocratic women who led interesting lives in mid- to late-18th century Britain. Kildare marries one of the sisters (Emily) and this is the role that created my crush on him – he’s hot and charming and a little bit dangerous.
Townsend in Britannic (2000)
A fictionalized account of the sinking of the HMHS Britannic off Greece in 1916.
Bühler in Conspiracy (2001)
I weirdly don’t remember him in this film about the conference at which the Nazis planned how to implement the holocaust! Josef Bühler was a lawyer who became State Secretary, and was later convicted of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and was executed.
Alfred Crackenthorpe in Marple: “What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw” (2004)
Obligatory Agatha Christie appearance!
Ian Fleming in Ian Fleming: Bondmaker (2005)
A TV dramatization of the life of the James Bond author.
Francis Walsingham in The Virgin Queen (2005-06)
I want to feel bad that I forgot him in his role as Queen Elizabeth I’s spymaster, but I see this picture and I understand why…
Rushton in Lark Rise to Candleford (2008)
None of us have really watched this show, set in a late 19th century English town. Mr. Rushton is a Post Office inspector.
Caiaphas in The Passion (2008)
More Biblical shit! This one about the last week of in the life of Jesus. Caiaphas was a high priest in Jerusalem.
Will Brangwen in Women in Love (2011)
An adaptation of two D.H. Lawrence novels set in 1915/1920. All I remember is the men in this were super annoying, so I have to assume Daniels’ character was too.
Tristan in Merlin (2011)
Technically fantasy (y’know, King Arthur) but I’m including it so y’all don’t point it out, as you will The Rings of Power.
Lieutenant Colonel Howfield in The Wipers Times (2013)
A dramatization based on the real-life British soldiers’ magazine published during World War I.
Tom Weston in The Paradise (2013)
Dammit, I really should have remembered this! Wait, except I don’t think I watched the second season! Phew! He plays the husband of the owner of the department store that forms the center of this TV series.
Francis Davey in Jamaica Inn (2014)
Allegedly an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Cornish-set novel. All I’ve ever seen are pictures of mud.
Francois-Joachim de Bernis in Casanova (2015)
I missed (but Trystan reviewed!) this Amazon pilot for a new TV series about Casanova which, sadly, did not take off. Bernis was a real-life cardinal and diplomat who is a major figure in Casanova’s memoirs.
Buckingham in The Hollow Crown: “Richard III” & “Henry VI pt. 2” (2016)
AKA Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, “known as the namesake of Buckingham’s rebellion, a failed but significant collection of uprisings in England and parts of Wales against Richard III of England in October 1483. He was executed without trial for his role in the uprisings. Stafford is also one of the primary suspects in the disappearance (and presumed murder) of Richard’s nephews, the Princes in the Tower,” per Wikipedia. Shakespeare!
Col. Sigurd von Ilsemann in The Exception (2016)
Daniels plays a Nazi officer in this film about the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II during World War II.
Lord Snowdon in The Crown (2019)
He’s the middle-aged incarnation of Princess Margaret’s husband, a talented photographer and philanderer.
Dr. Rivers in Benediction (2021)
The film is about World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon, poetry having been a major way that soldiers and veterans worked out their trauma from the war. Rivers was an anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist, and psychiatrist known for treatment of shell shock, and who treated Sassoon.
Santiago in Interview with the Vampire (2024)
Santiago is “the leading thespian of the vampiric troupe the Théâtre des Vampires,” per Wikipedia.
Do you share my love for Ben Daniels?
I also love the purple and green in that Paradise outfit – I just wish I could forget that IRL there would have been a cloud of arsenic wafting around all the green parts of it, which helped to kill the seamstresses who stitched it, the lady who wore it, the lady’s maid who cleaned and stored it, and will harm the curators who look after it in the musuem if they aren’t scrupulously careful.
It’s sad, because I love green as much as Garcia Lorca did.
I am a sucker for a man who rocks the cadenettes.
I love him from Aristocrats, a series I watch fairly often…and he has a foot fetish as Lord Kildare lol
I liked Mr. Daniels in The Aristocrats, too. He was irresistible.
He said HELLLOO to my radar as the narrator (Saki/Hector Hugh Munro) as well as the batchelor in 2007’s playful adaptation of some of his mischievous works ‘Who killed Mrs. de Ropp’. He perfectly and elegantly captured Saki’s concoction of meanness, wittiness and humanity. Also: Rocks some muttonchhops. Youtube has this little gem, if anyone cares.
You forgot Madeline 1998 where he played the Tutor!
Aleko, if it makes you feel any better, I know The Dreamstress has written a couple times at least about how the narrative around arsenic dye is pretty exaggerated: https://thedreamstress.com/2018/11/rate-the-dress-well-actually-its-a-pelisse/. American Duchess has a nice little article on the history of arsenic dyes: https://blog.americanduchess.com/2022/05/a-little-history-of-arsenic-green.html.
Adore Ben Daniels; had the biggest crush on him when he starred as CP James Steel. Was so gutted when his character was written out. I know I saw Aristocrats when it first aired, however, he didn’t register with me then. I know the costumes weren’t period correct, but I had no idea he could sing and he made a powerful Pontius Pilot in the live broadcast of Jesus Christ Superstar. I took a few photos of his Pilot costume when a number were on display for the Emmy exhibit at the FIDM Museum. I was happy to see him in The Crown, but really sorry to see Matthew Goode replaced.
Make that CP James Steel in Law & Order UK. Oops.
Thanks for this great listing of Ben’s work. I noticed him in TV series ‘Law & Order UK’. Contemporary of course, but he was great in this as a barrister. I shall try & catch him in some of these period pieces. I appreciate your irreverency in in your comments- adds a laugh to my day.
That man is just Deplorably Handsome (Which would be all I had to say, except that he’s currently playing an Elf in THE RINGS OF POWER, which strikes me as Costume Drama in it’s own right).
The man is just DEPLORABLY handsome (How handsome? He’s playing an Elf Lord in THE RINGS OF POWER).
Dang it, this is what an uncooperative computer will get you: my apologies for this redundancy.
As Bel Riose in Apple TV’s Foundation … stellar (pun intended).
It’s funny to see Passion in the Desert as a frock flick cite, because that movie is (in)famous for his lack of costume… :)
Man, I was always disappointed that he wasn’t series regular on ‘Lark Rise ‘, he was so much hotter and had better chemistry with Julia Sawalha, than any of the other love interests. Also a a series about Lord Snowden would be amazing with him, after his short time on the ‘Crown’.