the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones, but turned it down due to the amount of time he would have to spend away from his family. He played gay activist Jonathan Blake in the 2014 film Pride about the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike. West starred as Noah Solloway on Showtime's series The Affair, which premiered October 2014. The series was renewed for a fifth season in 2018. In 2018 it was reported that West was represented by Tavistock Wood Management. That year he appeared in Colette as the eponymous writer's husband, Willy. In 2019, West played the role of Jean Valjean in the BBC's adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables. Also in 2019, West appeared in Sky One's series Brassic, in the recurring role of Dr. Chris Cox. In October 2020, West entered negotiations to play Charles, Prince of Wales in the final two seasons of The Crown. His casting was confirmed in April 2021. That same month, West joined the cast of the 2022 film Downton Abbey: A New Era. Theatre As a theatre actor, West has played Edward in Harley Granville Barker's The Voysey Inheritance directed by Peter Gill at the Royal National Theatre in 2006. Around 2009, he starred at London's Donmar Warehouse as the protagonist in Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's existential drama Life Is a Dream, for which he received glowing reviews. He took the title role in Simon Gray's classic comedy, Butley, playing at the Duchess Theatre in London from 1 June 2011. In the September he returned to his native Sheffield to play Iago to his former Wire co-star Clarke Peters's Othello at the Crucible Theatre. In September to October 2012, he starred in Jez Butterworth's The River at the Royal Court Theatre in London with Miranda Raison and Laura Donnelly. From mid December 2012 to January 2013, West starred as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. In 2015–16, he starred alongside Janet McTeer in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Advertising In 2009, West starred in a series of online films known as "The Carte Noire Readers". Made to promote French coffee brand Carte Noire, they consist of actors reading love scenes from a selection of sources and acting through the commitment of justice. West reads extracts from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; Lady Chatterley's Lover by