Michael Whitehall On fame and family

Family Affair It’s a

The Whitehall clan are a close knit bunch. No wonder Jack decided to explore the world with his father Michael and in the last episode mum (Hilary) and Winston came too! We caught up with the charming Michael Whitehall about his life, travels and plans for the future.

Family memories: A collection of moments captured by the Whitehalls including Michael and Hilary’s wedding, scenes from Travels with My Father, family pics with siblings Jack, Molly and Barnaby and high jinks with newest family member, adopted Thai doll Winston

School for Michael Whitehall was Ampleforth in Yorkshire chosen by his deeply Catholic mother as it was deemed the ‘best’ at the time. Despite having never been north of Watford, he spent seven happy years there and loved it. “I had a really good time and made lots of friends.”

On leaving school, it wasn’t all plain sailing for Michael. “My mother wanted me to be a doctor or barrister and she had very grand plans for my career. I was a school teacher at some slightly suspect boys’ prep schools, a solicitor’s articles clerk and a bar student”. Despite this flirtation with the law, Michael found his attention span was just too short for these professions. Then, as fate would have it, Michael met Robin Fox the doyenne of agents who had a fantastic client list. “I started at the bottom and never looked back.” By 28, he was a successful agent in his own right discovering some big names whilst they were still at drama school – Colin Firth, Daniel Day Lewis and Michael Fassbender to name but a few! He also represented Dame Judi Dench and went on to form his own production company with Nigel Havers. One of his clients was the actress Hilary Gish who having “started a romantic moment” subsequently became Mrs Whitehall.

Jack is the oldest Whitehall sibling with Molly and Barnaby following closely behind. On enquiring if Jack showed any potential of becoming the mega star that he is today, Michael answers that he was “always a livewire but I didn’t have any idea he was going to go on into that line of business.

Working with Jack has been the absolutely special thing. I’m very lucky to have had my later years filled doing things with him which is a real treat.

In fact his great skill was as an artist, he was brilliant at cartoons and doing likenesses of people.” Such was Jack’s artistic flair that following Marlborough College he went to the Chelsea School of Art. Yet, his comedy career seemed to be written in the stars and following a stand-up set at the Edinburgh festival, his path took a different turn. On reflection, Michael remembers him being heavily involved in the drama scene at Marlborough. “He was always involved in the impresario side of drama, coming up with plays that he wanted to do and be in” in short “he was very impressive at Marlborough as an actor, but he was even more impressive as a comedian”.

Any assumption that Jack’s success was helped by having a father in the business is quickly put to bed. “It annoys me when people say the reason he did well was because his father was an agent. I was an agent for serious actors and I gave him virtually no help. He found his own way to the Edinburgh festival and then had his own agent as a comedian.”

The million dollar question is how the father/ son collaboration materialised. Michael is quick to point out that the “collaboration was simply that I was his father”! He agreed to do a small set with Jack at the Edinburgh festival called Backchat which later went onto TV and consisted of “Jack interviewing people whilst I sat looking grumpy!” From there, the Netflix series Travels with My Father developed – the rest is history.

When asked if he had any idea it would be so successful, Michael defiantly says “no” and “I was surprised at myself because although I have a comedy routine about loathing going on holiday, for me it wasn’t a routine - it was completely true! I’ve never been a traveller. Then suddenly in the last five years we’ve gone almost all around the world to all these places - it’s been very exciting and very nice to do it with Jack at my ripe old age.”

There are so many priceless moments in Travels with My Father that finding a favourite is a challenge. For Michael the most awkward was the Naked Yoga class in L.A. “Jack always gets very enthusiastic and he said it would be really funny if we went to this yoga place. When we arrived a man came over who wasn’t wearing any clothes.” In true Father Whitehall fashion, he steadfastly refused to remove any of his clothing (unlike Jack) but continued his sun salutation in shirt and tie. “I wasn’t going to take anything off but it was fun!”

Despite the glamorous locations and jet set hotels, the real pleasure for Michael was visiting some of the developing countries. “Vegas I thought was awful, I don’t understand the obsession but I loved the poorer places like Cambodia where the people were wonderful and the country beautiful.” Of course, we couldn’t discuss the series without referencing adopted Thai doll, Winston. Michael is the first to admit that Winston “is very troublesome - he has become a bit of a diva and he has an ego problem – mainly my fault”. Jack makes no secret of the fact he doesn’t like Winston and refers to him as “that doll”. This hasn’t stopped his growing fanbase @Winstonwhitehallofficial which has 146,000 followers and rising.

Life in lockdown has been predictable but there has been plenty of time for writing and reflection and there is talk of a new book. “I’ve been working on it with Jack and Hilary for some time - it’s very much a ‘might’ rather than an ‘is’ but watch this space.”

With all the many years of experience, what pearls of wisdom can Michael share with the aspirational younger generation? “My advice has always been exactly the same – don’t touch it with a barge pole. Don’t be an actor because you will be out of work most of your life – it’s all about rejection and you need to be very thick skinned.” Luckily for us Jack didn’t listen to his father, a reason why we love their confrontational relationship and adventures together.

Despite being in front of the camera latterly in life, it’s not Michael’s default setting. “I get offered things from time to time” but “I don’t want to be a TV star as I know how exhausting it is”. So what’s the attraction? In a nutshell – family. “I enjoy doing things with Jack and Hilary – I don’t really enjoy the rest of it. Working with Jack has been the absolutely special thing. I’m very lucky to have had my later years filled doing things with him which is a real treat.” And it’s that unpretentious love of family life underpinned with humour that gives their relationship its credibility. @fatherwhitehall

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