This is Fresh Air. I'm David Beancouli, professor of television studies at Rowan University in New Jersey, Inverteri Gross.

Our guest today, actor Matthew McFadian, won an Emmy this week for his work on the hit HBO series Succession, which also won as Best Drama Series.

He plays an aspiring business executive from the Midwest, and plays him so well that American audiences might be surprised to learn that he's British,

with a long list of credits on the British stage and in British TV and film.

Many will recall him playing the dashing Mr. Darcy in director Joe Wright's 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice.

In Succession, McFadian plays Tom Wombsgans, who dates and then marries Shavan 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 on an even footing with Shiv, as she's usually called, and her brothers.

We're going to listen to the interview Dave Davies recorded with McFadian from January.

In this scene, from the very first episode of Succession, the family is celebrating the Patriarch's birthday with a picnic and softball game.

Tom, hoping to ingratiate himself with the old man, approaches and gives him a case bearing an expensive watch, and it doesn't exactly go over.

The Patriarch, Logan Roy, is played by Brian Cox. Matthew McFadian, as Tom, speaks first.

So, I just want to give this to your person, just to say. Happy birthday.

It's just a... it's a... attackfully.

I said it's a attackfully...

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? No. No, well, no. Yes.

Okay.

Okay, let's play ball.

Oh boy, painful. Well, Matthew McFadian, welcome to Fresh Air.

Thank you for having me.

That scene is from the beginning of the series, and I'd never heard of a Patek Philippe watch, and I went online and I discovered that there's one that's a pre-owned...

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