Foyle’s War actress Honeysuckle Weeks has been banned from driving after claiming she was forced to get behind the wheel while drunk to avoid being coerced into a threesome.
The 43-year-old was more than twice the legal limit when she reversed into a parked car in Arundel, West Sussex and then drove off.
She was arrested after an off-duty police officer witnessed the incident and stopped her Honda CR-V SUV.
Appearing before Worthing Magistrates’ Court, the Oxford-educated actress admitted drink driving but said she had been trying to escape a situation where she feared she would be coerced into having sex.
Mathew Howell, prosecuting, said: “On Monday, November 28 last year at approximately 7.20pm, the defendant was driving her vehicle in Arundel when she was seen to reverse into a parked car on the street. The defendant drove off from the scene before returning 15 seconds later. The vehicle was stopped and the police officer realised the driver was drunk.”
Ms Weeks, who was wearing a tweed checked jacket, brown trousers, a grey polo neck jersey and brown boots, told magistrates she had been out drinking with friends on November 28 last year and had been invited to stay over for the night. But she said her friend had also invited his lover to stay over and she feared she would be coerced into a threesome.
Following her arrest tests showed Ms Weeks had 78 micrograms in 100 millilitres of breath - the legal limit is 35 micrograms.
The actress, who has also appeared in episodes of Death in Paradise and Midsomer Murders (1), pleaded guilty to a single charge of drink driving but asked for leniency explaining she needed her car in order to take her son to school every day. Ms Weeks also told the court she did not have a steady income at the moment and was only receiving Universal Credit.
Magistrates banned her from driving for 20 months and fined her £120 with £85 costs and a victim surcharge of £48. She agreed to undertake a drink driving awareness course which would reduce her driving ban by 20 weeks, meaning she could get her licence back in April 2024.
In 2015 Ms Weeks, who was educated at Roedean independent school in Brighton before reading English at Pembroke College, Oxford, was ordered to wear an electronic tag after being caught speeding while banned from driving.
In July the following year, Sussex Police issued an appeal after Ms Weeks disappeared. She was later found safe and well and returned home.
In 2005 she married hypnotherapist, Lorne Stormonth-Darling, in a Buddhist ceremony in the Himalayas followed by a more traditional wedding in London in 2007 and the couple had one son.
I’ve been a fan of Honeysuckle Weeks (and her very pretty sister Perdita) since their appearance in “Goggle Eyes” (1993) which starred Alun Armstrong and the lovely Lesley Manville. It wasn’t the sort of thing that I’d normally watch but the “stars” drew me in and Honeysuckle’s “performance” was amazing for such a young girl.
She’s had a long career but never achieved “stardom” and she seems to have “problems” … 
