He recently starred on stage in It’s Headed Straight Towards Us at the Park Theatre London.

He is the son of actors Prunella Scales (Fawlty Towers) and Timothy West (EastEnders, Coronation Street).

On stage Samuel has played Hamlet and Richard II for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Valentine in the first production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia at the National Theatre, Jeffrey Skilling in Enron in the West End and the voice of Pongo in Disney’s 101 Dalmatians II.

From 2005 to 2007 he was the artistic director of Sheffield Theatres, where he revived The Romans in Britain. Samuel West is an Associate Artist of the RSC and a trustee of the Campaign for the Arts.

Samuel West’s recent TV work includes Siegfried Farnon in the new All Creatures Great and Small, Slow Horses, The Crown, Small Axe, W1A, The Hollow Crown II, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Cambridge Spies and four series of Mr Selfridge.

Films include Darkest Hour, The Gentlemen, On Chesil Beach, Suffragette, Van Helsing, Notting Hill, Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre and Hyde Park on Hudson. He was nominated for a BAFTA for Howards End.

As a reciter, he has appeared with orchestras all over the world; in 2002 he was soloist in Walton’s Henry V at the Last Night of the Proms. Samuel has toured the West Bank three times with the Choir of London and directed The Magic Flute for the Palestine Mozart Festival.