Freddie Fox on cousin Laurence, Conan Doyle and believing in ghosts: ‘I wasn’t scared. But I knew she was there’

The ‘White House Farm’ star talks to Helen Brown about being shocked and sometimes appalled by members of his famous family, overcoming dyslexia, and Mark Gatiss’s latest Christmas ghost story

The actor comes from a family of thespians: his father Edward played the lead role in ‘The Day of the Jackal’ (Tavistock Wood)

Poor, sweet Freddie Fox. He knows it’s coming. In every interview. In every personal encounter of every depth. “The inevitable Laurence Fox question? Eugh. Oh God. Yeah.”

The 34-year-old actor, who impresses in almost every role, from the sinister Spider in Slow Horses to a rebel in Puritan England in Fanny Lye Deliver’d (2019), visibly shudders. His eyelids come down like shutters, and the boyish animation drains – briefly – from his face as he summons a statement on his cousin, the self-styled “anti-woke” campaigner, suspended from X/Twitter last year for posting the image of a Swastika made from the Progress Pride flag.

“Look,” Freddie sighs. “I fundamentally and completely oppose Laurence’s political views and the way he chooses to express them. His views both shock and appal me. And that’s all I’ve got to say about it. It’s not something I relish talking about.”