Then they eventually put their finger on it, most people recognise Fox from Lewis, ITV’s Morse spin-off drama, in which he played Detective Sergeant James Hathaway, Kevin Whately’s sidekick, for seven series. Others will know him as the husband of Billie Piper, the popstar-turned-actress, to whom he has been married for six years. “I’ve never called myself that; it would sound weird,” insists Fox. “At Lewis, when I’m being naughty, they say, ‘Oh look, Mr Billie Piper’s being a d—.’ They know that will make my hackles rise.”

Despite his escalating profile, Fox, 35, is a family man. He’s most at home chopping wood and fishing for pike near the ramshackle West Sussex cottage he shares with Billie and sons Winston, five, and Eugene, 18 months. The downside to doing eight shows a week in London is being away from it all. “Theatre is great until you start doing it and then you go, ‘God, I’m missing my family,’” he says. To make things easier, the Foxes (plus their two dogs, Baxter and Peggy) have moved to the capital while he’s on stage. Continue reading  »