I really love it too. It’s been one of my favorite relationships I’ve ever got to play on screen. I think Gaia [Wise], who plays Charlotte, is one of the most wonderful actresses I’ve gotten to work with. She was a joy to play all those scenes with, she’s just spectacular. And I think our chemistry is wonderful, so I really lucked out in finding someone that I get along with.
And it couldn’t have come at a better time for Tristan. I think he’s past flitting from woman to woman. He never really had a love interest that lasted longer than a season or a couple of episodes. In Seasons 1 and 2, he was very much still a boy, I think it would be fair to say. He was still very caddish, very immature, and it was totally the right call for him to be flitting from girl to girl. But he’s matured now. He’s a captain—the same rank as Siegfried—and after what he’s gone through in Season 6, he’s seen and experienced some things that changed him unalterably and thrust him into manhood in a way that he’ll never really be able to return. So I think he’s long past that type of behavior, and I think he needs and deserves a more stable partner. And I also think the audience that we’ve built up over the years wants to see Tristan happy, and Charlotte really makes him happy.
Tristan had some beautiful lines of dialogue in Episode 6, speaking about the war and what happened to him, but I actually think my favorite line of dialogue from this season came from Charlotte, when they are having their little heart-to-heart at the fete in the Darrowby Green. He kind of heartbreakingly tells her, “I’m not sure if I’ll ever be the same chap that I once was.” And Charlotte’s line back to him is, “That’s fine. I like you the way you are now.” And it makes me quite emotional, thinking about it, because she is happy with him how he is, and that’s so, so beautiful. She’s not trying to cure him. She’s not trying to change him back. She’s just trying to make this version of him happy. And I think they do that for each other. I love it.