This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies and today for Terry Gross. Our guest today, actor Matthew McFadden,

is one of the ensemble cast members of the hit HBO series Succession. He plays an aspiring

business executive from the Midwest, so well that American audiences might be surprised to learn

that he's British, with a long list of credits in British stage, TV, and film.

Many will recall him playing the dashing Mr. Darcy in Director Joe Wright's 2005 version of

Pride and Pregidus. He starred in a series which aired on AMC, called Quiz, based on the true

story of a man convicted of cheating on the original British version of the TV show Who Wants

to Be a Millionaire. And he stars in the forthcoming film Operation Mints Meet about a secret effort

in World War II to keep the Nazi invasion of Sicily hidden from the German Army.

In Succession McFadden plays Tom Wombsgans, who's dating and then Mary Shavon Roy,

who's one of three siblings competing for control of their aging father's media empire when he

retires or dies. Tom is a player in the corporate intrigue, but as an in-law, he's never quite on an

even footing with Shavon and her brothers. In this scene from the first episode, the families

celebrating the Patriarch's birthday with the picnic and a softball game, and Tom hoping to

ingratiate himself with the old man, approaches and gives him a case bearing an expensive watch,

a patect-fuliep, and doesn't exactly go over. The Patriarch, Lohen Roy, is played by Brian Cox,

Matthew McFadden, as Tom speaks first.

So, I just want to give this to your person just to say, uh, you know, happy birthday.

It's just a, it's a attack-fuliep. So,

I agree, I agree. I said it's a attack-fuliep. Yeah.

It's incredibly accurate. Every time you look at it, it tells you exactly how rich you are.

That's very funny. Did you rehearse there?

...