Screen stars Damian Lewis and his wife Helen McCrory have revealed that they forbid their children from using computers during the week.

The couple also impose a “10-minute rule” for weekends, fearing the youngsters will be unable to express themselves if they overuse technology.

Actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory
Homeland’s Damian Lewis with his wife Helen McCrory (Luke MacGregor/PA)

Peaky Blinders actress McCrory, 46, and Homeland and Wolf Hall star Lewis, have two children together – Manon, nine, and Gulliver, eight.

In next week’s Sunday Telegraph Stella magazine, McCrory says: “I want the children I meet to be less interested in staring at a computer screen and more interested in talking to me.

“There’s a whole generation of children growing up who don’t seem able to express themselves.”

Actor Damian Lewis, right, and his actor wife Helen McCrory
Are Damian and Helen’s online rules tough? (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/PA)

She added that she and her husband often sit down with their kids, a dictionary and a thesaurus, and encourage them to write.

“When they say they want to look something up on a computer, we say no. We want them to have the space to think, you see,” says McCrory.