Bertie Carvel: Playing Doctor Foster’s scheming Simon puts me at risk

DOCTOR Foster star Bertie Carvel, who plays the villainous ex-husband of vengeful GP Gemma (Suranne Jones) in the gripping BBC drama, has admitted that inhabiting such an unlikeable character has put him ‘at risk’.

Despite this, he claims never to have been accosted for his fictional crimes in real life.

Curiously, Bertie puts this down to him and his character’s lack of facial similarities.

‘I think it’s because I don’t look like Simon Foster,’ he told the Radio Times.

And Bertie seems fairly relaxed about the fact, as he puts it, ‘that there are people on the internet saying how much they hate Simon Foster’.

‘With the millions who watch it, there are likely to be one or two who can’t distinguish between me and the character, and feel a hatred of Simon. So I suppose that puts me at risk,’ he says mildly.

But he modestly says he isn’t really that famous really and would never want to have to live in a gated community.

‘You have to just hope that most people enjoy the fictional reality of Simon without thinking he’s real,’ he adds.

Bertie did think twice about taking on the role, though.

‘I had a strong reaction that Simon was such an obviously bad guy, and I felt that was a mistake,’ Bertie says.

‘I wanted it to be more nuanced, and with a sense of why Simon behaves in that way. I wrote to Mike [Bartlett], and I think, in his own way, he reflected some of that in the rewrites.’

Meanwhile, series creator Bartlett has hinted that the current series could have such a shock ending that a ‘third [series] might not be possible’.

Doctor Foster continues tonight on BBC 1 at 9pm

Author: Anna Thomson