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In a rawly emotional and deeply moving interview, Martin Clunes talks for the first time about his beloved mother's sudden death and how it's utterly changed his life.

Would Martin Clunes have been an actor at all if it hadn't been for his mother? It may have been his father, the classical actor Alec Clunes, who had the thespian training, but it was his mother who dragged him backstage after shows, to fawn over actors he'd never even heard of. 

'She was so stagestruck. She was always more interested and excited than me,' he admits. 'Even once I was in the business, if I got a new job, she would be beside herself, saying, "Who is in this series?" 

'I'd say, "Well, so-and-so, and so-and-so, and yes Mother, thank you for asking, I'm fine, your granddaughter Emily is fine..." But she just loved it. She thought actors were the most marvellous people. It didn't matter who they were at heart. I'd say to her, "But Mum, he beat both his wives to a pulp." She'd say, " Marvellous Hamlet, though."'

Rest of interview here: www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23551556-i-havent-acted-since-my-mother-died-martin-clunes-tells-how-his-mothers-death-changed-his-life.do