Christian John Light Christian's character reflects aspects of the personality of Peter Rodd (1904-1968), Mitford's husband from 1933 until their divorce in 1958. Like Christian, Rodd had an idealistic streak; he helped to organize refugees in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Actor John Light plays this charismatic communist whose politics take precedence over love. He has played a young Reggie in the ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre's award-winning A Rather English Marriage and Major Wetherby in Unknown Soldier. His other credits include Mary Mother of Jesus and the film Purpo$e. In Mitford's words: Christian ... He was an extraordinarily handsome young man, tall and fair, in a completely different way from that of Tony, thin and very English-looking. His clothes were outrageous -- he wore a really old pair of grey flannel trousers, full of little round moth-holes in the most embarrassing places, no coat, and a flannel shirt, one of the sleeves of which had a tattered tear from wrist to elbow. The Pursuit of Love, Chapter 12