The Guardian The Observer
By Rob Mackie
Friday February 5, 1999

Surely we've had our full complement of Fiennes world domination.
By no means. They're going for Fiennes doubles now.

Such as?
Joseph has the double of both cinematic literary box-office hits, Elizabeth and Shakespeare In Love, the latter being the biggest-ever first weekend take for the opening of John Madden's bardathon this week - "There's lots of hacking blades. That's quite knackering," says Joseph. But a bigger double comes when Ralph is directed by his sister Martha.

I didn't know there was a sister.
That's why we have these little chats. And it's impeccably literary too: Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. And there's a Liv Tyler double.

How come?
Joseph was in Liv's debut, Stealing Beauty. Liv plays Ralph's admirer in Onegin. Oh, and there's a Russian double as Joseph's next is to be Rancid Aluminium, a comedy about the Russian Mafia, getting him out of those damn doublets and hose and into roubles and ho-hos.

So it's look out McGanns. How many Fienneses are there?
Well, there's cousin Ranulph, who climbs things, Joseph's twin Jake, who is a gamekeeper, and I expect they'll spring another one on us when we're not looking.

So what with Ralph's Academy Award nomination for his Amon Goeth in Schindler's List, it's been triumphs all the way for the family they couldn't pronounce properly.
Unless you include Ralph's role in The Av*ng*rs, which of course we don't mention.

What about their theatrical roots?
Not forgotten. There was Ralph's 'amlet at the 'ackney Empire, which was his next role after Schindler's List and caused block bookings from members of the opposite sex. Even the tabloids were interested, since Francesca Annis was playing his mum in the play while being his partner in real life.

Was this his only brush with Shakespeare?
No, after that he took his Hamlet to Moscow - as seen on a TV documentary with sister Martha behind the camera, so the Fienneses doing Pushkin is a bit of an Anglo-Russian tit for tat.

I've not heard too much of Pushkin lately.
But you will. This year is the 200th anniversary of his birth, so you know what that means - big biographies, T-shirts and documentaries about Aleksander Sergeyevich.

A name almost tricky enough for a Fiennes. So what's the trickiest, twistiest Fiennes name?
Oh, all right, but no sniggering at the back. It's Sir Ranulph Twistleton-Wykeham-Fiennes. Might have been a great actor, but they just couldn't fit the name on the marquee.