It was a temporary relapse and a tough time in his life. Stephens, the younger son of actors Dame Maggie Smith and Sir Robert Stephens, was born at the Middlesex Hospital in Fitzrovia, London.He was educated at Aldro School and Seaford College. Toby Stephens began his acting career while a stagehand at the Chichester Festival Theatre, in end-of-season productions mounted by the crew.

I said, 'There's no way I'm going to have time to put myself on tape for this.

He did get to play a Bond villain in Die Another Day (2002), but he later described the film - in which his character was revealed to be a genetically modified North Korean - as "the apotheosis of ridiculousness". The other thing which I've also experienced is you have three children and a mortgage and you go 'I've got to work' and you do whatever comes along to pay the bills. I ask him about a story I've read concerning the actress Diana Rigg. Hard, but great fun.

He never went to Alcoholics Anonymous. I remember thinking, 'When I wake up tomorrow I am not going to feel like s---,' and that was when the switch went: 'My life is better like this'. He finally got to know him as an adult when they were both working for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Find out about Kura Stephens's family tree, family history, ancestry, ancestors, genealogy, relationships and affairs! He shrugs: "Things can go wrong." It is blisteringly hot on the terrace, thanks to a fierce patio heater.

Anyway, she wore me down and then it was agony, the agony actors have when they fall in love with a character and you think, 'S---, this is cool, I'm probably not going to get this,' and this was one of the few times I actually did."

He got called to audition for Black Sails while he was in the middle of making The Machine. Stephens calls the former, "Deadwood meets The Wire. He then trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).

My mother just went, quite rightly so, I've got two children that I'm responsible for and your life is in total chaos and our life is in total chaos." On the whole I don't watch television. Stephens began his film career with the role of Othello in 1992, in During mid-2007, Stephens played the role of Jerry in a revival of Also in May 2008, Stock-pot Productions announced that Stephens will have the lead role in a feature-length film entitled On 5 October 2008, Stephens appeared onstage at the Early in 2009, Stephens appeared as Prince John in season 3 of the In mid-2009, Stephens returned to the London stage in the In 2010, he starred in the made-for-television film, Stephens took on a small supporting role in a short film, Meantime, on the London stage in the spring of 2010, Stephens received outstanding reviews for his performance as Henry in a revival of Over the years, Stephens has continued to prolifically narrate audiobooks and perform in broadcast radio dramas; in the last three years, he has averaged four or five such performances per year. His parents are Downton Abbey’s Dame Maggie Smith and the late Robert Stephens, a leading light in the theatre world. "She did forgive me, begrudgingly," he grins. Her father’s name was Nathaniel Smith who was a public health pathologist and her mother’s name was Margaret Hutton. It didn't work. Now I don't even think of it. His stepfather, Cross, also died around the same time.

"We had no budget, we were working horrendous days and I was in every scene.

What's nice for me is that she is in my genetic make-up. "I'm going to see what happens. "But after two weeks I felt so good that I didn't want to go back to the life I was living. I embrace that, I love that. There are a number of other pivotal moments. Why didn't he go to AA?

Did he intend to have children in such quick succession? I remember reading a book and going to sleep and how nice that had been. That was not the turning point. "I think AA is good for people if they want it but I think there is an addiction to talking about your addiction." But that's just part of me." I have a switch, it's off or on. "Exactly. As an actor he has received rave reviews, notably in 2006 when he was a brilliant, brooding Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre. "And sometimes you get a script and you think, 'Oh, that's a good script', and it comes out rubbish. Kura has uncles named Chris Larkin ( English actor), Quinn Hawkins (English actor), and Michael Stephens. "They weren't sure if they wanted a woman's voice or a man's voice and I said if I get it I'll take you out for dinner, if you get it you can take me out. My agent was saying, 'No, it's not a normal pirate show, it's brilliant.'

The son of Downton Abbey’s indomitable Dame Maggie Smith ... three, and two-year-old Kura.

"Exactly, and I've struggled with that for a lot of my life, so I try to go, 'This is my mum, this is me.' My mother and him had been lovers before she metmy father.