UK actor Toby Stephens has enjoyed his own triumphs on screen – best known for his role as James Bond’s youngest ever villain Gustav Graves opposite Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day (2002).

And the career of his mother, Dame Maggie Smith who died in 2024, is celebrated as one of the 20th century’s great legacies – on theatre, stage and screen, although two roles came to define her to younger generations, those of Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter series, and the acerbic Dowager Duchess in the long-running TV series Downton Abbey.

Now Stephens has shared why, despite their individual successes, mother and son made the decision very early on not to unite on screen. He explained to The Times of London:

“We both thought it would be a bit naff. I’d have loved to — but it would have been such a thing.”

Stephens admitted he had fought against barbs...