Purefoy was screen tested for the role of James Bond in 1995 for "GoldenEye", but ultimately lost the role to Pierce Brosnan. Throughout 2004 and 2005 Purefoy's name was rumoured as a possible candidate to replace Brosnan as Bond in future films. He played James McCarthy, a young man accused of murdering his father, in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery," in Granada's "The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes". One of his notable roles was as Nicholas Jenkins in the eight-part miniseries "A Dance to the Music of Time" for Channel 4 in 1997. He played Edward, the Black Prince in the film "A Knight's Tale", Rawdon Crawley in "Vanity Fair" with Reese Witherspoon and Tom Bertram in the 1999 production of "Mansfield Park".