Playing Under the Piano: From Downton to Darkest Peru – Hugh Bonneville (née Williams) (d 81)

Hugh Bonneville is one of Britain’s best-loved actors, whose credits include Downton Abbey, W1A and the Paddington films.

From getting his big break as Third Shepherd in the school nativity play, to navigating Highclere Castle’s complex Labrador policies, to bizarre Hollywood encounters, Hugh creates a brilliantly vivid picture of a career on stage and screen. What is it like working with Judi Dench and Julia Roberts, or playing Robert de Niro’s right leg, or not being Gary Oldman, twice?

A naturally gifted writer and uproariously funny storyteller, Hugh also writes with poignancy about his father’s dementia and of his mother, whose life in the secret service only emerged after her death.

Whether telling stories of his B & H smoking, G & T drinking, horse-racing addicted grandmother, or working with an invisible bear with a penchant for marmalade, this is a richly entertaining memoir.