Mr Bell

Mr Bell is Margaret Hale's godfather, an old friend of her father's from their Oxford days, and, as it happens, Mr Thornton's landlord in Milton. Comfortable, witty and a little idle, he moves easily between the genteel South and the industrial North, offering Margaret warmth, dry humour and an outsider's clear-eyed view of both worlds.

Brian Protheroe plays him with an unhurried, amused geniality that makes him a relief whenever he appears amid the story's tensions between class and labour. The writing uses him as a bridge — someone who can speak plainly to both Hales and Thorntons — and Protheroe's warmth gives that structural role real affection and charm.