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The Reverend Osborne Whitworth is to Christian virtue what Kim Jongun is to international diplomacy.

Poldarks sex-crazed vicar visited prostitutes before his marriage and once he had ensnared a comely maiden in the shape of the naive, young Morwenna Chynoweth he proceeded to make her life a living hell with his remorseless demands and willingness to take her by force if she resisted his lustful advances.

When Christopher Biggins played the part in the BBCs original 1975 adaptation of Winston Grahams novels he portrayed Ossie as such a repulsive individual that the villainous vicar was voted the most hated man on TV and people hurled abuse at the unfortunate Biggins in the street.

Now Christian Brassington appears to have pulled off a similar coup.

One reviewer wrote of a scene featuring the corpulent clergyman: With his eyes shut, plump cheeks flushed, brow damp with sweat, body convulsing in pleasure and making porcine noises, only 10 minutes after the watershed, the reverends tryst was enough to put anyone off their Sunday dinner.

Brassingtons feat is all the more remarkable if you see him pre- production: the 34-year-old looks more matinee idol than overweight lecher.

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But the actor who has become the man we love to hate realised he would have to bulk up if he was to convey the true awfulness of his subject. Ossie is an extremely greedy character who has champagne tastes on a beer income, says Brassington.

He is a vicar and he talks about being a man of God but he has also got this voracious sexual appetite, which seems impossible to satisfy. It is unreal what he gets up to.

Normally actors have to get into shape for a role rather than out of it but Osborne is described as being a rather large character and a man of a huge appetite so there was no getting around that I had to gain a lot weight.

ITV

And so in the months before filming the man who had once flaunted his super-slim physique dressed only in Y-fronts as Tony Blair in a drama about the former PMs university days went on a 3,500 calories-a-day diet that took his weight from 13 stone to 15.

I started off trying to do it healthily with lots of eggs and protein shakes, he told the Radio Times.

But I have to admit I moved away from that and lagers, burgers and ice cream came into it. It was pretty good. Lots of red meat! Going to the gym and doing the weights I felt pretty good but when I got to the top weight I have to say I didnt feel so fantastic.

BBC

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Poldark: What to expect in series 3

Brassingtons preparation for the role also included visits to various museums to examine paintings of upper-class figures from the period. He wanted to see how gentlemen in that age stood and held themselves, as well as what they wore. All of my costumes were ever so slightly too small for me on purpose so it looks like I am bursting out of my clothing, he says.

The poor costume team had to get me in and out of my shoes all of the time because trying to bend down meant buttons coming undone and flying off. Ossie spends all of his money oncanary [wine] and clothes and so it was a treat for the costume team to dress me up because there is quite a lot of poverty in Cornwall during this time but my costumes were very grand.

Born in Wellington, Shropshire, Brassington grew up in Basingstoke, Hampshire, where he attended a stage school run by his father Colin Flaherty.

Determined to become an actor he studied at Londons prestigious Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and got his big break shortly after graduation in Tony Blair: Rock Star.

A year later the young Brassington starred opposite Cate Blanchett as Charles II, the Archduke of Austria in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and in 2009 followed up his part as Blair with a portrayal of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson as a younger man in When Boris Met Dave, an account of how Johnson and David Camerons lives become intertwined.

In 2013 he married Jennie Fava, a director/ producer eight years his senior and looked set fair for a successful career.

But it would appear that the work dried up to such an extent that he began to experience financial problems and in May last year was declared bankrupt.

Following his spellbinding performance as the grotesque Whitworth, however, Brassington can surely expect to make a comeback. He is already working on a writing project with Georgia Moffett, 32, the wife of the former Dr Who David Tennant, 46.Brassington and Tennant became firm friends on the set of St Trinians: The Legend Of Frittons Gold and it was Tennant who introduced him to his wife Jennie.

Meanwhile Brassington must shed the pounds he put on for his Poldark role. But as he observes:

It takes much longer to lose weight than to put it on. I have worked it out with a nutritionist and personal trainer but it is much easier to sit here eating a burger than go for a run.

The final episode of Poldark, series three, is on BBC One next Sunday at 9pm.

Read the rest here:
Poldark's rotten reverend: Christian Brassington on playing the most hated man on TV - Express.co.uk