“Goddess” Hannah Waddingham Takes Over ‘Tom Jones’ on ‘Masterpiece’ This Week

Masterpiece on PBS’s Tom Jones crosses into dangerously sexy territory tonight as the show’s titular hero falls into the web of one Lady Bellaston (Hannah Waddingham). Tom (Solly McLeod) attends a masquerade in the hopes of finding a way to reconnect with his true love Sophia Western (Sophie Wilde), but instead kicks off a dark affair with her scheming aunt, Lady B. The older woman is rich and beautiful, but clearly wants handsome young Tom all for herself.

Lady Bellaston could have been depicted as a diabolical villainess, but in Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham’s hands, she is a tragically complex figure. Sure, she enjoys manipulating the people around her, but there’s a part of her that seems truly transfixed by Tom. And that’s what triggers her eventual downfall.

Tom Jones writer Gwyneth Hughes told Decider that she specifically wanted to give Lady Bellaston this “humanity,” even though it’s not necessarily in Henry Fielding’s original novel.

“Fielding’s got much more killer instinct. He thinks Lady Bellaston is a complete silly cow. And I think she’s a sad and lonely figure and although she behaves very badly, I think she is in love with Tom. She’s in love with him,” Hughes said. “I think that’s what got Hannah to take the role because she’s not just a grotesque.”

Before praising the “brilliant” Waddingham to Decider, Hughes admitted that she had never heard of the Emmy winner before she signed on to the role. “So I hadn’t met Hannah and I hadn’t seen Ted Lasso because I didn’t have Apple TV+. So, I was like, ‘Who is Hannah Waddingham?’” she said.

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Now that Hughes has seen Ted Lasso, she can’t believe they managed to nab Waddingham for the PBS show. “What a goddess, though,” she said.

Waddingham’s Tom Jones co-star Solly McLeod was equally taken with her and gushed to Decider about working with the “brilliant” actress.

“She was so lovely and so kind of gentle and kind and supportive. Because, I mean, our scenes are quite intense,” McLeod said. “So having Hannah there to support me and to have as a scene partner was really important for how it turned out and how that relationship turned out as well.”

“I think that’s when Tom takes charge a little bit. It’s him taking control of the consequences and learning about the consequences of his actions, and taking charge within the relationship in some scenes.”

While Tom might learn a big lesson about personal accountability from his time with Lady Bellaston, Hughes revealed her favorite moment in the whole show was a bit that Waddingham was in complete charge of: the moment Lady Bellaston hides behind a curtain from Honor (Pearl Mackie).

“She’s behind that curtain and her plumes do this,” Hughes said giggling as she mimed the Lady Bellaston’s feathers moving. “It just makes me weep with laughter. I just can’t imagine what we would have done without her.”

Tom Jones Episode 4 will premiere on Masterpiece on PBS on Sunday, May 21. All four episodes of Tom Jones are currently streaming on the PBS Passport app.