romping home
I was in the pub with my godmother who is obsessed with D’Artagnan – and the women in my pilates class all talk about the boys – yeah, they’re not bad to look at. The whole job is a lot of fun.
romping home
Something about
Maimie Her name’s Milady and she’s no stranger to a musketeer’s bed. No wonder actress Maimie McCoy is having the time of her life. We caught up with her as she swapped corset for cosy pub on a visit home to North Yorkshire Maimie McCoy is the envy of her chums in pilates class. The envy of many a woman in the UK come to that. The day job currently finds her laced into a corset, perfecting a conniving glance then striding into mischievous character alongside her four swashbuckling musketeer co-stars. As the sexy, murderous Milady d’Winter 34-year-old Maimie is revelling in a meaty, devilish role that sees her allied with the charismatic Peter Capaldi and bed-hopping with sultry Athos. It’s a key role in the Sunday night BBC1 hit series that is giving Mr Selfridge a run for his money – and one that marks a turning point for Maimie, especially now that it has been commissioned for a second series. She is loving being Milady, a woman “with fire in her belly” who is about as good as it gets when it comes to female characters, a woman considered by some to be author Alexander Dumas’s finest literary creation. Beneath her aggression and cunning she is a richly mysterious character. “I was in the pub with my godmother who is obsessed with D’Artagnan – and the women in my pilates class all talk about the boys – yeah, they’re not bad to look at. The whole job is a lot of fun and we’re all putting heart and soul into it,” she smiles. We catch up with Maimie (christened Mary and still called it by her close family. The ‘Maimie’ from when brother Rory couldn’t pronounce it properly), as she prepares to head for Prague to film the next series of Musketeers. She has just spent a few months in Wales on the film, Set Fire to the Stars, about Dylan Thomas. A low-budget film shot in black and white which attracted big names including Elijah Woods and Celin Jones. She’s made the journey to Crathorne near Yarm to catch up with parents Eugene and Barbara McCoy at home above the shop at Crathorne Arms pub (of which more on page p48). She was brought up at Staddlebridge near Stokesley where the family ran The Tontine. She went to Stokesley School and after graduating in London embarked on an acting career which has seen her in a number of solid roles – including the series Personal Affairs and Victoria Wood’s
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MAR/APR14
MAR/APR14
drama, Loving Miss Hatto – but never the breakthrough – until now. “A second series of Musketeers is good – I’ve never had job security so there’s something very attractive in knowing what you’re doing for a year financially,” she admits. Some of the coming months will mean a bit of wedding planning – she is getting married later this year with celebrations at the family pub – and no doubt godmother is hoping her fellow cast members will be among guests. Mary is marrying actor James Buller – he played Clara’s dad in the Dr Who Christmas Day special last year. “There’s a lot to do, a lot to manage and we’re a bit restricted on time but I am really excited about it – I can’t think of anything worse than spending two years or more planning a wedding – I would just get bored. “It has been great coming back home for a bit – I was here last year – we had to say goodbye to a place that had been my parents’ home for 37 years but it is wonderful to see them settling in to the new pub and I think they have been surprised at the love and loyalty of their customers. The wedding will be great.” Growing up in the hospitality trade means that Maimie can turn her hand to many things in the kitchen and to keep herself sane – financially and mentally – between auditions, she set up a business called Mary’s Tea Parties. This was a few years back – before the whole baking thing went ballistic. “The idea was vintage tea parties when no-one else was doing that. My USP is that it is about the food. Lots of people style it up but I don’t like to be too twee.” She serves up the very traditional elements of an afternoon tea, and can even be a bit scathing: “I mean, where does a chocolate-covered strawberry come in to afternoon tea?” Lovely things like a delicious spread of finger sandwiches, scones, mini pastries and cakes galore will be served up on one of Mary’s beautiful vintage tea sets. Think Raspberry “fantasy” cake, or delicate lavender shortbread stacks. When we speak she is making plans for one of her parties – and reckons that she hasn’t been ‘spotted’ yet. But will she be tempted on to some kind of celebrity bake-off? >>
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