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By Jane Dimond Undaunted by the dismal rantings for their Year In Provence, the BBC go back to France for the three-part 19th Century costume drama Scarlet and Black. Dark, brooding Ewan McGregor, 22, stars as Julien Sorel, ambitious son of a peasant carpenter, who rises through the Army (the scarlet) and the Church (the black) to the heart of Paris society - then sets about seducing the most eligible young women in town. Ewan won rave reviews as Private Hopper in the Dennis Potter drama Lipstick On Your Collar, and is tipped to be a big name. Co-star Alice Krige was smitten. She plays Madame de Renal, wife of a stuffy myor, who starts a passionate affair with the young stud when he becomes tutor to her three children. Alice, 38, says: "Ewan was superb to work with and is so talented. We were lucky because the bedroom scenes were filmed at the end. By then we knew each other well, and had a certain intimacy." In the early scenes, the only clue to Alice's burning passion is her heaving bosom - helped by a tight corset. She says: "I was boned from top to toe, I couldn't turn or reach up at all, and even found it difficult to eat." British-born Alice, who played an opera singer in Chariots Of Fire, and starred with Richard Gere in King David, now lives in America with film maker husband Paul Schoolman. Ewan also beds Mathilde, bored daughter of the Marquis de la Mole, played by 23-year-old Rachel Weisz. |