Nearly 30 years since he wowed the world as Niles in Frasier, David Hyde Pierce has been lured back to TV as chef Julia Child’s adoring husband. He talks about food, sex – and whether he’ll soon be reuniting with Kelsey Grammer
Eighteen years after Frasier ended – and nearly 30 since it began – it’s finally happened. David Hyde Pierce has found a major role rich enough to tempt him back to TV. Not Niles Crane again – not yet, anyway. To sate fans early: Pierce is thrillingly noncommittal about Kelsey Grammer’s reboot: “It’s happening, but I don’t know in what form, and I don’t know when, so I don’t know where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing. I’m certainly interested to see what they come up with.”
Which definitely isn’t a no. But before then, at least, he’s found someone worthy of his time. Someone not a million miles from Niles, in fact. In Julia, the deluxe new Sky/HBO series about hulking TV chef Julia Child (played by Sarah Lancashire), who popularised French cooking in 1960s America, Pierce stars as her husband, Paul. Paul is a snob. Fastidious, a bit weedy. He knows his burgundies and will eye-roll if you pair boeuf with beer. He’s sometimes insufferable. We come to care for him deeply.
