Oliver's New Twist

Ask Emma Thompson, Gwyneth Paltrow or Dame Judy Dench why costume dramas appeal and the answer seems fairly obvious: you get to wear empire dresses, ride in a horse-drawn carriage and greatly improve your chances for an Oscar. Academy Award or no, Eaton says that costume dramas can be career-makers. Until he strode down the manicured lawns of Pemberley in a dripping-wet shirt, Colin Firth was relatively unknown outside Britain. Now the mere mention of his name makes housewives sigh from Stockholm to Sydney. "There is that saying that everyone wants to play Hamlet, and I think some of this applies to classic literature [which] has fantastic lead parts," says Eaton. If only we could all get Mr. Darcy in the end.

With Kevin O'Flynn in Moscow

© 2005