Eddie Redmayne's family holiday home has been devastated by wildfires

Richard Redmayne, 83, told The Mail On Sunday newspaper: "The whole upper floor and the roof - was burned up. The heat was clearly intense.

The hill at the back of the house now looks like a scene from the First World War.

"We have had fires before there. We had one 15 or 16 years ago. But my gardener said to me that this last fire moved so fast that it covered the same distance in an hour that it took the earlier one to travel in three days."

Richard added that friends were staying at the property at the time of the blaze and were forced to flee.

The house - where Eddie, 39, enjoyed many family holidays as a child - overlooks a vineyard and forest and has six bedrooms, its own swimming pool, tennis court and a boules pitch.

Richard and Patricia are due to fly out to France this week to inspect the damage to the property.

Eddie - who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in 'The Theory of Everything' in 2015 - tied the knot with Hannah Bagshawe in 2014 and they have a daughter, Iris, born in

2016 and a son, Luke, born in 2018.