Colin Firth did not impress in-laws initially

Actor Colin Firth learned Italian to impress his now-wife Livia Giuggioli's parents because they weren't initially keen on him dating their daughter.

The King's Speech star married film producer Giuggioli in 1997 and admits one of the main reasons why he learned to speak her native Italian was a desperate bid to win over her mother and father, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

“Her parents warmed up. I mean, taking a stab at their language, you know, I had to do an awful lot to convince them that I was good material for their daughter. Because I had a lot of strikes against me. I was 10 years older nearly, English, didn't speak the language,” he said.

“I mean, the list really does get very, very bad so I had to fix the language. It was one thing I could deal with and, you know, there's nothing like communicating with people in their own tongue,” he added.