Kipling's tragic tale - helped by a Sex in the City star

Nov 5 2007

Emma Johnson discovers Kim Cattrall has swapped the streets of New York for pre-war Britain in a new ITV1 drama

Written about in the book Hated Wife, Carrie Kipling – an American in conservative pre-War Britain – was a powerhouse of a woman who was fiercely protective of her world- famous husband.

It was a trait said to have made her one of the most despised women of her generation.

But ultimately this fiercely independent female had to give in to her husband over their son’s decision to go to war.

Says Kim: “At the very beginning of our story, there seems no possible way that Jack will be accepted to serve because of his poor eyesight. Carrie asks Rudyard if he can get him a clerical job.

“She’s usually adept at handling and influencing Kipling. She believes he’s going to do as she asks, so Jack will be safe behind a desk for the entire war.

But Rudyard pulls some strings through his powerful friends to get Jack a commission and suddenly he is going off to war.

“I look at Carrie from my modern sensibility and I scream ‘Get on your knees and beg him not to go! Shoot Jack in the foot! Don’t let him go to the Front’. I long for her to join her daughter Elsie’s rants of ‘Why!’ but Carrie lowers her head as the dutiful wife of her generation and tries to support both Jack and Rudyard’s decision.”

It is hard to imagine Kim ever playing the dutiful wife.

Married at 19 to Larry Davis, the couple later split and subsequent marriages to Andre J Lyson and Mark Levinson (with whom she wrote the sex manual Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm) both ended in divorce.

Earlier this year, there were claims that Kim was planning to get married a fourth time – to her toy boy, chef Alan Wyse, 27, but she was quick to scotch the rumours, insisting she never plans to walk down the aisle again: “There’s no reason to. I am happier than I have ever been.”

For 17-year-old Radcliffe, the lead in My Boy Jack is his first television role, and Kim says the teenager was ideal for the part.

“Daniel was perfectly cast. Jack and Daniel are going through a very similar period in their lives right now, creating their independent world and making their own decisions,” she says. “And there’s that incredible enthusiasm – I think he’s wonderfully cast and very, very touching in the part.”

Despite probing on the subject on the Sex and the City front, Kim gives little away. Accused in the press of stalling the movie project due to a rift between her and executive producer Sarah Jessica Parker, she has always refused to comment.

As for the plot, she admits only that “there’s some pretty groundbreaking stuff in store for Samantha”, and that her character will grapple with the big 5-0.

As for Kim, who recently revealed she turned down a lead in the comedy Ugly Betty, house- hunting in London and continuing to bring strong female roles to life are next on the agenda, once SATC filming finishes.

“I'm 51 now, so the roles are not as good as they used to be. As you get older, your audience gets a little smaller.

“But then look at Helen Mirren and Judi Dench: they’re playing the roles of their lives at 60 and 70.”

* MY BOY Jack is on ITV1 on Sunday, November 11.