The Marlow Murder Club: 7 Things to Know About Samantha Bond (2024)

Samantha Bond has a devoted fanbase from MASTERPIECE shows like The Marlow Murder Club, Home Fires, and of course, Downton Abbey where she played wealthy widow Lady Rosamund. But what do you know of the performer herself? Turns out she kisses and tells, has quite a serious (but innocent) habit, and likely avoids walking under ladders. Here we tease out a few facts about the talented actor, from surprising roles and a show biz family to a passionate love of games.

1. 1.

   Samantha Bond Once Dreamed of Pirouettes, Not Plots

   Like a lot of young girls, Bond took dance classes and dreamt of being a ballerina. Her tutu phase started at age four and continued into her early teens. “When I was 14, I was like a stick insect. And then I did puberty, and I became rather large; my mom used to call me the bouncing ballerina,” she tells the MASTERPIECE Studio podcast. “At 15, you apply to senior ballet schools … I didn’t get in.”

   Bond returned to regular classes where a teacher encouraged her to join student plays, some of which combined casts with a nearby school. “At one point I was on stage with Nigella Lawson and Hughie Grant,” she says in an interview with The Telegraph (UK). “By that point it had become clear acting was going to be the path.”

2. 2.

   Bond was Juliet to Branagh’s Romeo

   Bond was just 24 and working her way through repertory theater when she got the role that changed her life. Renowned actor Kenneth Branagh was searching for a co-star for his own production of Romeo and Juliet at the Lyric Studio. A casting director suggested Samantha Bond. “So, I was called to London for this interview [for the part of Juliet] with Ken,” she tells The Guardian (UK). “I was going from the rep system to suddenly meeting this West End leading man. The fact that he was only a year older than me—I was 24 and he was 25—was irrelevant. He was already a big thing.” The part catapulted Bond to her first television leading role, her first West End play, and ultimately joining the Royal Shakespeare Company.

3. 3.

   Samantha Bond Famously Played Moneypenny

   Samantha Bond’s fans cherish her turns as sexy MI6 secretary Miss Moneypenny in the era of 007 films starring Pierce Brosnan. Moneypenny traded flirtatious wordplay with James Bond in four films (GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, Die Another Day) between 1995 and 2002. “If you roll all my screen time into one it would be the smallest role I’ve ever done,” she tells the Mirror (UK).

   She was actually the only Moneypenny to kiss agent 007—in a dream sequence. She tells BBC Sounds that filming the scene “was a bit daunting. …It took three hours! And yes, Pierce Brosnan is a great kisser.”

4. 4.

   Samantha Bond Doesn’t Push Her Luck

   Bond readily admits to being superstitious. She tells Good Housekeeping that she abides by the belief that saying the name “Macbeth” inside a theater is bad luck; one must say “The Scottish Play” instead. Bond is also not taking chances with British folklore that claims coming across a lone magpie will bring bad luck unless you “salute” it with a chipper ‘Good morning!’

   And discussing other characters she’d like to play? Out of the question. “I will never, ever talk about that,” Bond tells the Mirror (UK). “The moment you put a dream into the universe either someone steals your dream, or someone pops it. I’m very superstitious, can you tell?”

5. 5.

   Show Biz Plays a Major Role in Samantha Bond’s Family

   Samantha Bond is the daughter of actor Philip Bond, known for playing Albert Frazer in the 1970s BBC drama The Onedin Line, and TV producer Pat Sandys. Her sister, Abigail (Gems), is also in the biz, while her brother, Matthew, is a film critic at London’s The Mail on Sunday. Her husband is stage actor Alexander Hanson. After 22 years together, the couple finally worked on the same stage project in 2010’s An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde. “It’s a bit weird when you go home and you can’t say, ‘How was your day?’ That’s been a bit …different,” she told The Guardian (UK).

6. 6.

   Bond’s Love of Games is Next Level

   Samantha Bond has a serious relationship with games—word games, number puzzles, and more. Like her character in The Marlow Murder Club, the actor relishes crosswords. “Well, I love a cryptic crossword,” she tells the MASTERPIECE Studio podcast. “My mom…taught me how to do cryptic crosswords, because there is a sort of a learning curve to them, to know which clues you’re looking for, which clues to discard.” Number challenges are also habit-forming. “Not a lot of people know this but I’m very good at mathematics. When I was an angry teenager, I used to sit in my room and do quadratic equations to calm myself down,” she tells Express (UK). “I now find myself addicted to killer Sudokus.”

   During the years Bond played Lady Rosamund on Downton Abbey, the cast consistently played Bananagrams in their down time, she told an ITV talk show. “I’m really good at Scrabble so I know all those little two-letter words. Maggie [Dame Maggie Smith] doesn’t know those, so she gets very, very cross when I play them.”

7. 7.

   Bond’s Standout Downton Abbey Moment

   Samantha Bond speaks of many “precious” times while filming Downton Abbey but one moment is especially memorable. “I can remember being in the green room at Highclere Castle when Shirley MacLaine came in,” she says in an interview with The Northern Echo (UK). “I was looking at this legend, who I have watched and admired since I can remember, and eventually I had to cross the room and go, ‘Um Shirley, I’m Samantha Bond’.

   “By the end of the day, we were bosom buddies. She liked me because she could see that I had once been a dancer, but things like that are absolutely extraordinary and surreal, and what a privilege to have that chance in life.”