If anything put Jones on the map as a credible actor, however besides comedic turns in the likes of Girls and Ricky Gervais's Cemetery Junction it was the 2010 screen adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, directed by Julie Taymor, who's otherwise best known for the unparalleled Broadway disaster Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. This was better, though! Well, it did have Russell Brand in it. But it also had Helen Mirren as the gender-swapped Prospera, the sorceress mother to Jones's Miranda. Which is a dynamic which apparently followed the two actors through into real life, as since then Mirren has acted like something of a mentor to Jones. I just love the way she works - in a very straightforward, un-flashy way - and she achieves great things, Jones has since said. The way she behaved was something I wanted to emulate. She's very calm and she doesn't ever let how others perceive her get in the way of her work. She's completely un-jaded. Considering Mirren is one of the UK's acting national treasures, there are worse role models to have.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
