British Actors You Should Know: Tamzin Merchant
PBS Masterpiece audiences recently saw Tamzin Merchant as Sophia Western’s Aunt Harriet in Tom Jones. The least effective of Sophia’s aunts, Harriet is under the thumb of her overpowering sister Lady Bellaston (Hannah Waddingham), who uses her house to entertain her lovers, and she’s also bullied by her drunk, unfaithful husband Patrick Fitzpatrick (Julian Rhind-Tutt). Harriet probably won’t find love conquers all, but by the end of the series, she has become firm friends with Fitzpatrick’s mistress, Mrs. Waters (Susannah Fielding).
No stranger to costume roles, Merchant’s breakout (but not her first) role was as Darcy’s sister Georgiana in Joe Wright’s 2007 Pride & Prejudice. But had things turned out differently, Merchant might have been known as the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones. She played the character in a disastrous 2009 pilot episode (and was subsequently replaced with Emilia Clarke), and a couple of years ago, she opened up about what happened in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
... I found myself naked and afraid in Morocco and riding a horse that was clearly much more excited to be there than I was.
