That’s wicked

Rosamund Pike’s crisp voice is on the line from somewhere in the Czech Republic. There, the actor is making fantasy epic tele vision series The Wheel of Time, based on the 14-book series by Robert Jordan. She plays Moiraine Damodred, who, she says, is the saga’s Gandalf-esque figure – the one persuading everyone else to go on a journey.

“Often, that character is a man and in this series I actually have that role, as it were.”

So, tall, pointy hat and long beard?

“I went for a different direction.”

Pike’s foray into high fantasy ticks offanother genre in what’s been a varied two decades on screen for the English actor. She’s played some upstanding people and war correspondent Marie Colvin in among them.