Louis Trevelyan Oliver Dimsdale "... Louis Trevelyan was a man of whom all people said all good things. He might have been a fellow of his college had he not been a man of fortune. He might already, so Sir Rowley told, have been in Parliament, had he not thought it to be wiser to wait awhile. Indeed, he was very wise in many things. He had gone out on his travels thus young, not in search of excitement, to kill beasts, or to encounter he knew not what novelty and amusement, but that he might see men and know the world. He had been on his travels for more than a year when the winds blew him to the Mandarins. Oh, how blessed were the winds! And, moreover, Sir Rowley found that his son-in-law was well spoken of at the clubs by those who had known him during his university career, as a man popular as well as wise, not a bookworm, or a dry philosopher, or a prig. He could talk on all subjects, was very generous, a man sure to be honoured and respected; and then such a handsome, manly fellow, with short brown hair, a nose divinely chiseled, an Apollo's mouth, six feet high, with shoulders and legs and arms in proportion -- a pearl of pearls! Only, as Lady Rowley was the first to find out, he liked to have his own way ..." Oliver Dimsdale grew up in North Hertfordshire. He studied French and economics at university, but always knew that the only thing he really wanted to do was act. "When I was 13 I got a radio play for the BBC and I just carried that on at school and then at university. I thought to myself I'll give it a crack, I'll go to drama school, I'll see whether I can make a living out of this. I'm safe in the knowledge that I've tried my hand at many other things and I know full well that this is the only thing I can do." It could be construed as a brave choice because -- though you'd never know it from watching him in character -- Dimsdale has a noticeable stammer, something that could be seen as a big drawback in a profession where the voice is paramount. "It does seem ironic, but I don't really see it as a problem in many ways. I just see it as something that I've lived with from the age of about six or seven. I guess it's one of these things where you as the artist find your voice in something, and ironically I found my voice in words and characters and my imagination. I've learned how to handle it and how to get by. I had some speech therapy when I was younger and was taught several techniques to help. It's quite strange that once I've learned a line and I know the rhythms of a scene or the traits of a character, then I no longer think of myself as someone who stammers. So I don't." His credits so far include playing Shelley in BBC 2's mini-series Byron. He also played Pip in Great Expectations at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre.