Ray Penvenen

Ray Penvenen is a wealthy, tight-fisted Cornish landowner and the guardian of his spirited niece Caroline. Fussy about his health and fiercely careful with his money, he watches over Caroline's fortune and her marriage prospects with the same miserly attention, wary of anyone he suspects might be after either.

John Nettles plays him with a dry, watchful precision that makes Penvenen's parsimony genuinely funny rather than merely mean—every clipped word about expense or ailment lands as comic timing. The part gives him just enough starch and self-interest to make his scenes with Caroline crackle, an obstacle worth outwitting rather than simply resenting.