“HARRY Wild drinks too much red wine. I don’t. I also have this habit of correcting everyone. I correct my kids’ grammar all the time. I tried not to do the same with my fellow cast members but I did.”
This is how the beautiful Jane Seymour described her excitement at being back for Season 2 of the detective series “Harry Wild”. “Harry Wild” features the shenanigans of a retired university literature professor who begins a new career of solving mysteries. The first season also saw Harriet "Harry" Wild teaming up with troubled teen, Fergus Reid, with the two striking up an unlikely bond. The new season will explore their dynamic in more detail. Harry and Fergus now investigate cases ranging from missing persons to murder, with the wise-cracking pair tackling a case much closer to home when Fergus's mother suddenly turns up, years after abandoning her family.
Seymour said she loves the independence of her character and Harry’s ability to keep on teaching the troubled Reid.
Together the two, from vastly different worlds, take on serial killers and bizarre characters. On her career, spanning more than 50 years, Seymour said her secret to longevity is surrounding herself with younger people.
The English actress started her acting career in 1969 when she starred as an extra in a musical comedy, “Oh, What a Lovely War”. Seymour transitioned to leading roles in film and television, including a leading role in the television series “The Onedin Line” (1972–1973) and the role of psychic Bond girl Solitaire in the James Bond film “Live and Let Die” (1973).
Critical acclaim followed with a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series for “Captains and the Kings” (1976). In 1982, Seymour won her first Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television for the miniseries East of Eden (1981). She received additional Golden Globe nominations in the same category for the television film “The Woman He Loved” (1988), in which she portrayed the American twice-divorced wife of King Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson, and the miniseries “War and Remembrance” (1988-1989), for which she was nominated twice consecutively in addition to receiving another nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special. By this time, Seymour had won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special for “Onassis: The Richest Man in the World” (1988), in which she played Maria Callas. In 1993, Seymour was cast as Dr Michaela Quinn in the television series “Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman”, a medical drama set in the Wild West which ran for six seasons and resulted in a further two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and four nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama (including one win), and two nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series. Seymour was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and, in 2000, was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
“I find joy in accepting roles that are nothing like me. I was always considered a dangerous actress. I take the jobs nobody else wants to,” Seymour added.
And when she’s not on set, Seymour often spends time with her children and their friends.
“The younger crowd represents my second chance at life. I love spending time with my grandchildren. Life is too short to be hanging out with old people,”she giggled.
In Season 2, Harriet “Harry” Wild, finds herself at one of life’s crossroads. Jolted from a mugging, she reluctantly agrees to recover in the home of her son, Charlie, a senior police detective. Harry starts to interfere in her son’s particularly baffling murder case when she notices the murderer has followed a pattern from a well-known play. When she successfully catches the killer by putting herself at great risk in the process, she finds a new lust for life. Harry and her protégé, Fergus, quickly find new mysteries to solve. Harry’s expertise at her new passion brings her into direct conflict with Charlie, who needs nothing less than his mother causing trouble at work. In an interview with Independent Media, Seymour said while she is not by nature the meddling type, she did relish the role from when she read the first episode.
“What I liked most about this series is that in a world of remakes, this is quite original. I wanted to work on it more and the setting in Ireland was just spectacular. My co-stars are simply fantastic people,” said Seymour.
“Harry Wild” premieres weekly from Sunday 30 July at 20:00 CAT on Universal TV Africa (DStv Channel 117), with episodes available immediately after on Universal+, exclusively via DStv. The series stars Jane Seymour as Harry Wild, Rohan Nedd (“Safe”, “Doctor Who”, “Blue Story”) as Fergus Reid, Kevin Ryan (“Once Upon a Time”, “Copper”, “Crossbones”) as Charlie Wild, and Amy Huberman (“Finding Joy”, “The Clinic”, “Butterfly”) as Orla Wild.
Saturday Star
norman.cloete@inl.co.za