David Oakes is an actor who was brought in up in the Salisbury area. He was also head boy at Bishop Wordsworth’s School.

Oakes is reading at a Christmas carol concert at Salisbury Cathedral on December 6 in aid of Help for Heroes and ABF The Soldiers’ Charity.

What was the first record/CD you bought?

I fear it was Gilbert O’Sullivan’s Greatest Hits on cassette from Woolworths.

What do you wish you were good at?

I’m from a family of musicians who only seem to have musician friends - they all club together each year and put on Music Makers. My clarinet playing is mediocre at best. I feel immeasurably left out!

If you could meet anyone from history, who would it be?

I’ve just been playing Kim Philby for a BBC documentary series fronted by Ben Macintyre. I’d want to ask him how he balanced his socialist views alongside a complicit knowledge of the purges and pogroms committed in the name of socialism.

Is there someone well known you’ve met who really impressed you?

I’m pretty certain actors aren’t supposed to name drop, but, I’m about to work with Jane Seymour, and I had a massive crush on her when I watched her in Live and Let Die as an early-teen. All that wonderful hair!

If you were stranded on a desert island what luxury would you choose to have with you?

A record player - but I most certainly wouldn’t take the afore mentioned Gilbert O’Sullivan.

If you could make or change any law, what would it be?

Healthcare and education should be free and public in every sense. No private contractors, no foolhardy targets to hit.

Human-run institutions run on a one-toone basis of what is best for the individual.

That and I’d stop HS2 and the badger cull.

What was your first job?

I did various things backstage for Salisbury Playhouse.

What would you like your epitaph to be?

Something like: “Rowan David Oakes: 1983 - 2541. In retrospect it seems he was almost always trying his best.”

Is it ever acceptable to break the law?

Yes. Laws sometimes have to change, I doubt they ever would if those in power didn’t realise the unjust nature of preexisting rules.

How did you meet your significant other?

Alas, I am not able to answer that question at the present time. I may put an entry into this week’s Journal classifieds. “Has own sword. GSOH.”

What’s your guilty pleasure?

Getting paid to play psychotic sociopaths on international television!