Dame Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey (Image: Nick Wall \/ ITV)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n The outpouring of affection for Dame Maggie Smith following her passing at the age of 89 last year surprised absolutely no one. Claims of national treasurehood from the likes of King Charles and the Prime Minister, however, might have caused the Grand Dame herself to arch one of those famous eyebrows, according to her son.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was incredible but she never really coveted fame,\u201d explains actor Toby Stephens thoughtfully. \u201cI don\u2019t think she saw herself in that light at all. She certainly never took it for granted or sought it out \u2013 really it was just her work.\u201d<\/p>\n A star of stage and screen for an extraordinary seven decades, Dame Maggie\u2019s death robbed us of one of our most singular talents. Having made her name in theatre in the early Fifties, she became one of Britain\u2019s most prolific and recognisable actors in everything from Harry Potter to Downton Abbey, working almost until the end.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was a very private person who didn\u2019t put herself out there,\u201d continues Toby. \u201cSo it\u2019s very moving that people connected with her and respected her so much.\u201d<\/p>\n Growing up the son of theatre royalty (his father was the actor Robert Stephens), he warmly recalls his famous mother\u2019s love of reading and books which she passed on to Toby and his older brother Chris. It\u2019s a gift that has kept on giving.<\/p>\n “Reading and books were a huge part of my mum\u2019s life. Both my mum and my step-dad (playwright and screenwriter Beverley Cross) read voraciously,\u201d he smiles. \u201cSo it\u2019s always been part of my life. And now more than ever, because our attention spans are so scattered by technology, it\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/p>\n Which explains in part why the 56-year-old, whose roles have included Bond villain Gustav Graves opposite Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day, Mr Rochester in the BBC<\/a>\u2019s Jane Eyre and, most recently, lawyer Archie Moore in The Split, as well as Poseidon in the Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, is so passionate about Give A Book.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Toby Stephens with Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in Die Another Day (Image: Eon Productions)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n The inspirational charity promotes the pleasure of reading in hard-to-reach places like prisons, mother and baby units and among disadvantaged children. Give A Book<\/a> was the Daily Express Christmas charity two years ago \u2013 generous readers funded a new school library near Birmingham \u2013 and this week is one of the beneficiaries of Big Give\u2019s Christmas Challenge, an online match-funding campaign which doubles donations and is now the UK\u2019s biggest fundraiser for good causes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great charity because it\u2019s trying to get reading into prisons,\u201d explains Toby, a Give A Book ambassador alongside the likes of Simon Callow, Freddie Fox, Kit de Waal and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who knows all about life behind bars, having been locked up by the despotic Iranian regime for six years on trumped up charges.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously prisons are a very hot topic at the moment \u2013 the fact we have very limited space for lots of people and how we manage an ageing system,\u201d continues Toby.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got all of these inmates crammed into ancient Victorian buildings or crumbling infrastructure, stuck in their cells for long periods of time because of overcrowding. So how do you give them some sort of inner life? How do you give them some escapism? Books are an amazing way of showing that we\u2019re all connected, that our experiences are shared. Reading Studies have shown that the UK prison population is disproportionately made up of people with neurological conditions including brain injury, ADHD, autism and learning disabilities, while illiteracy is rampant. Ministry of Justice data shows 57% of adult prisoners have literacy levels below those expected of an 11-year-old. And yet, as Toby rightly points out, few skills have a bigger impact on a person\u2019s life chances than being able to read. Indeed, improved literacy skills have been widely linked to reduced risks of reoffending among former inmates.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of the purpose of prison is reformative,\u201d says Toby. \u201cReading, alone or as a group activity, can help inmates express themselves better and expand themselves.\u201d The charity is doing its best to improve literacy behind bars, with more than 75 prison reading groups now operating in 50 jails.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Toby with his mother Maggie Smith at an awards bash in 2005 (Image: Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n Last year, it also handed out nearly 7,500 books to \u201cfirst nighters\u201d \u2013 newly-arrived inmates. As founder and executive director Victoria Gray explains, the first night can be the most vulnerable time in a prisoner\u2019s existence and having a book can be a source of comfort and a distraction.<\/p>\n It was through Victoria and her late husband, the playwright and Smoking Diaries author Simon Gray, that Toby came to be involved, having starred in the latter\u2019s play, Japes, in 2001, and later in his radio play Missing Dates. Three years after Simon\u2019s death at 71 in 2008, Victoria launched the charity. Since then, it has gone from strength to strength. \u201cSimon was a massive influence on me and a really close friend,\u201d says Toby. \u201cHe was the most adorable man and such a unique individual; funny and wise, irreverent\u2026 I absolutely adored spending time with him and Victoria.\u201d<\/p>\n The actor, who lives in London with his actress wife Anna-Louise Plowman and their three children, has just finished playing Captain Hook in Wendy and Peter Pan at the Barbican, central London.<\/p>\n Like his mother, his early reputation was forged on stage. He rose swiftly up the ranks at the Royal Shakespeare Company before his breakout role as Coriolanus in the eponymous tragedy in 1994. Ten years later, he returned to play Hamlet. By then, having appeared in Photographing Fairies, Space Cowboys and, most famously, Die Another Day, he was a bona fide film star.<\/p>\n \u201cI was lucky,\u201d he admits modestly. \u201cI went to the RSC with Peter Hall in All\u2019s Well That Ends Well. When they were casting Coriolanus, they offered it around to various middle-aged, established actors of high calibre \u2013 the ones they normally offer it to \u2013 and they all found it unappealing, because he\u2019s a sort of proto-fascist.<\/p>\n \u201cThen they had this brainstorm, \u2018Why don\u2019t we cast him young?\u2019 So I was called in to audition and it was just one of those great breaks for me. But also a huge learning curve because I was still pretty young.\u201d<\/p>\n Since then he\u2019s rarely stopped working. With the second season of Percy Jackson released on Disney+ next week, Toby is looking forward to returning to the US in the spring to film season three.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Toby Stephens as Coriolanus at the RSC, his breakthrough 1994 role (Image: Corbis via Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s lovely is that it brings Greek mythology to a modern audience in a thrilling children\u2019s series, in the books and on television,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s about a boy who is isolated and bullied at school who discovers he\u2019s a demigod and his father is Poseidon. It\u2019s lovely to see fans of the books having grown up and now enjoying the TV adaptation \u2013 that shows the power of reading.\u201d<\/p>\n Like many though, Toby is concerned that young people are reading less. \u201cI\u2019ve valued books all my life and I think the way we now absorb information is becoming so superficial,\u201d he admits. Smartphones are often blamed by parents for their child\u2019s loss of interest in books and reading, I suggest.<\/p>\n Toby concurs: \u201cMy son, who\u2019s 18, used to be a voracious reader. He loved reading but I\u2019ve noticed he very rarely picks up a book these days. I hope he\u2019ll find it again later. Whereas my youngest is 15 and she still reads voraciously.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if you imagine you were their age and you had that f***ing thing \u2013 a smartphone \u2013 you\u2019d be just as distracted. They are part of our lives but I hope we can find balance. It seems fairly obvious there\u2019s a connection between the rise in anxiety, depression and all that kind of stuff in kids, and the fact their lives are so much consumed by these things.\u201d Reading, by comparison, is therapeutic, calming and mindful, he believes. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s such a great idea having reading groups and books in prisons. Even if you\u2019re getting to a very narrow group of people, you\u2019re still affecting them.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re opening up horizons for people who, through their own poor choices, the aperture of their lives has become narrower and narrower and narrower. It\u2019s very moving to see them have a new outlet and an inner-life in those situations.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid a growing cost-of-living crisis, The Big Give is a brilliant way to donate to charities like Give A Book. \u201cIt doubles donations so your hard-earned money goes even further to change people\u2019s lives,\u201d says Toby.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nicola Walker as Hannah and Toby as Archie in The Split (Image: BBC \/ Sister)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n Toby smiles when I ask if, having starred in the 007 franchise, he might speculate who will be the next James Bond. It\u2019s a role linked to almost every male British actor of a certain age. But having played a villain early in his career probably ruled him out. \u201cI\u2019ve got no idea but I\u2019m so glad I got to be in one of those movies,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a huge thing for me, just an amazing adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s enjoyed seeing the most recent Bond, Daniel Craig<\/a>, spread his wings post-007 in the Knives Out franchise playing quirky private detective Benoit Blanc.<\/p>\n \u201c007 is the most fantastic role to play but I think it does hamper you for a while because you\u2019re just James Bond. They don\u2019t necessarily want nuance, and I think Daniel took the role as far as he could. What\u2019s great is seeing him now being able to reinvent himself and do this kind of slightly Baroque character.\u201d<\/p>\n Would he have taken the role of the secret agent with a licence to kill if offered?<\/p>\n \u201cOf course I would, you\u2019d be mad to turn something like that down,\u201d he chuckles. \u201cBut I\u2019m really glad I was in the franchise and playing a baddie.\u201d Gustav Graves might have ended his life sucked into a jet engine after losing a fight with Brosnan\u2019s Bond but today, Toby\u2019s happy enough to let books leave him shaken and stirred. Dame Maggie would no doubt approve.<\/p>\n![\"Dame](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/79\/1200x712\/secondary\/Maggie-6596504.jpg?r=1765011849043\" "\\"Dame")
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is mentally expanding, it\u2019s about learning, escapism and sheer joy.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Toby](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/79\/590x\/secondary\/Maggie-2-6596549.jpg?r=1765011849154\" "\\"Toby")
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![\"Pierce](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/79\/590x\/secondary\/Bond-2-6596583.jpg?r=1765011849344\" "\\"Pierce")
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