Who is actor Jason Watkins and what happened to his daughter Maudie? – The Sun | The Sun

JASON Watkins has fast become one of Britain's most sought after actors.

The talented star is known for big roles like Line of Duty and Doctor Who, and the work isn't slowing down.

Who is Jason Watkins?

Jason Watkins born on July 30, 1966 in Albrighton, Shropshire, and trained to be an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

He got his first role in the 1993 film Buddha of Suburbia and went on to have small parts in Hotel Babylon and Blue Murder.

Jason also started to develop a stage career and in 2001, he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in A Servant For Two Masters.

In 2009, he broke into TV when he landed the role of powerful vampire William Herrick in the BBC Three horror comedy-drama Being Human.

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Jason is married to jewellery designer Clara Francis and they have two children, Bessie and Gilbert.

On New Year's Day 2011, their daughter Maude died from sepsis aged just two-and-a-half.

Jason also has two sons from his first marriage.

What else has Jason been in?

Jason is known for shows Miranda, Doctor Who and The Wrong Mans.

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In 2014, he was cast as Simon Harwood in W1A, the follow-up to the Bafta-winning comedy Twenty Twelve.

The same year, Jason starred as Christopher Jefferies in the two-part series The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, for which he won the Bafta TV Award for Best Actor and which he dedicated to Maude.

In 2016, Jason starred as Pastor Hansford alongside James Nesbitt in the four-part drama The Secret and the same years appeared in two episodes of The Hollow Crown.

He was then cast as Malcolm Turner, Helena Bonham Carter's neighbour in Love, Nina and starred in an episode of Friday Night Dinner.

Jason also played Mr Humphries in the revival of Are You Being Served and in the Tom Hardy drama Taboo as Soloman Coop.

He also joined the cast of the BBC police drama Line of Duty for the fourth series.

Jason earned rave reviews for his turn as serial killer Ralph in the Theatre Royal Haymarket production of Frozen.

The actor also starred in the three-part BBC drama A Very English Scandal, alongside Hugh Grant, and Hold the Sunset, which also stars John Cleese and Alison Steadman.

Jason is also known for Netflix's The Crown, and ITV's McDonald & Dodds, and the 2023 drama series The Catch.

What films has Jason been in?

Jason starred as Principal Warfare Officer in the 1997 Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.

He also starred in the second Bridget Jones film Edge of Reason and camp wedding planner Gregory Hough in Confetti.

In 2009, he was cast as Gordon Shakespeare in Nativity, a role he reprised for the second and third film.

Who is Jason Watkins' wife and how many children do they have?

Jason married jewellery and fashion designer Clara Francis in 2014.

Together with his wife they have two children, Bessie and Gilbert.

He also has two sons, Freddie and Pip, from his first marriage to actress Caroline Harding.

What happened to Jason Watkins' daughter Maude?

Jason and Clara's two-year-old daughter Maude passed away on New Year's Day 2011.

Her life was cut short after doctors assumed she simply had a chest infection – but had missed the signs that Maude had sepsis.

In March 2023 the heartbroken couple shared their story in a moving ITV documentary, Jason and Clara: In Memory of Maudie.

In the film, a distraught Jason candidly described the devastating moment their older daughter Bessie found Maude.

He said "Bessie came in and said 'I can't wake Maude. And so I went into her room and I said her on the cot and she was lying flat.

"And there was a trickle of blood that had dried in her mouth so I knew she died straight away. I felt fate had been cruel and we had been smashed around in a storm. That's how it felt."

Clara added: "How can you go to sleep one night and have a child who's got a bad cold and croup and then wake up the next morning and your child is dead?"

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