Damian Lewis speaks about how late wife influenced debut album

By Hannah Roberts, PA Entertainment Reporter

British actor Damian Lewis has said his late wife Helen McCrory influenced his debut album, including a song he wrote about growing old in Paris.

Peaky Blinders actress McCrory, who had been married to Lewis for more than 13 years, died from cancer at the age of 52 in 2021.

Appearing on BBC One programme Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, the Homeland actor, 53, spoke about his debut album Mission Creep which includes the track Wanna Grow Old In Paris.

Asked if he was speaking about McCrory in the song, he said: “I am. Yeah, you don’t need to be Sherlock to work that out.

“Yes, a lot of it (the album) was influenced by Helen and that song in particular, it’s exactly that. She grew up – she was a teenager in Paris.”

In the first verse of the song, Lewis sings: “Wanna grow old in Paris. Wear my heels down by the Seine. Hold your hand close to the water. Wrapped in fur, if it’s all the same.”

Speaking about how he started making music, he said: “Essentially, I was a busker. I used to busk a lot.

“I had a motorbike. I had a tent. I used to go around Europe in the summers and I used to play on the streets, me and an acoustic guitar, and I’ve written an album in that vein.”

Lewis also spoke on the programme about his role playing Henry VIII in Wolf Hall: The Mirror And The Light, a follow-up to the 2015 BBC historical drama series.

He said: “In 1529, he (Henry) set up his reformation Parliament, and it was essentially a way in which every whim of his, every impulse, whatever it was, was legitimised through the legislative power of Parliament.

“And that was his reformation court, it enabled him to separate from Rome, essentially do what he wanted to do.

“I don’t know if that reminds you of anyone currently out there in the political forum, but we’ve seen what’s happened to the supreme court in America.”