Lord Montdore John Standing A dead ringer for Lord Rennell (1858-1941), Mitford's father-in-law and British ambassador to Italy during World War I, Lord Montdore is a courteous, courtly, aristocratic shrinking violet. He is Polly's father and the husband of the relentlessly snobbish Lady Sonia Montdore. John Standing is an actor whose face seems familiar even if you can't quite place him. His numerous film credits include The Eagle Has Landed, A Touch of Love, The Elephant Man, Invitation to the Wedding, Mrs. Dalloway, and Longitude. He has been seen on television in Rogue Male, The First Churchills, The Old Boy Network, The Choir, Gulliver's Travels, A Dance to the Music of Time, and The Woman in White. In Mitford's words: Lord Montdore If an Englishman could be descended from the gods it would be he, so much the very type of English nobleman that those who believed in aristocratic government would always begin by pointing to him as a justification of their argument. It was generally felt, indeed, that if there were more people like him the country would not be in its present mess, even Socialists conceding his excellence, which they could afford to do since there was only one of him and he was getting on. A scholar, a Christian, a gentleman, finest shot in the British Isles, best looking Viceroy we ever sent to India, popular landlord, a pillar of the Conservative Party, a wonderful old man, in short, who nothing common ever did or mean. Love in a Cold Climate, Part I, Chapter 1