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Hugh’s coming memoir Playing Under the Piano: From Downton to Darkest Peru, creates a brilliantly vivid picture of a career on stage and screen. What is it like working with Judi Dench, Kate Winslet Maggie Smith, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes, Julia Roberts, playing Robert de Niro's right leg, or not being Gary Oldman, twice? As 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. Hugh is primed to offer up his disarming charm and unflinching honesty in Playing Under the Piano.Whether telling stories of working with divas, Dames or a bear with a penchant for marmalade, this is a richly entertaining account of his life as an actor.
Hugh Bonneville’s film credits include Notting Hill, Iris, The Monuments Men, as well as the Paddington movies and Downton Abbey movies. I Came By, a contemporary thriller by director Babak Anvari is currently on Netflix.Hugh’s television roles include Ian Fletcher in the BAFTA-winning Twenty Twelve and W1A (BBC) and Robert Crawley in ITV’s global hit, Downton Abbey, for which he received nominations for a Golden Globe, two Emmys and along with his fellow cast members won three SAG Awards for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series. He recently completed filming The Gold, a six-part drama about the 1983Brink’s-Mat bullion robbery for BBC One, iPlayer and Paramount+. Hugh’s stage career spans more than three decades and includes seasons with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. His most recent appearances were in Enemy of the People and Shadowlands, both at Chichester Festival Theatre. He recently published his memoir, Playing Under the Piano. Hugh is a patron of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, The National Youth Arts Trust, Scene &Heard, The Primary Shakespeare Company and the South Downs National Park Trust. He lives in West Sussex with his wife, Lulu Williams. They have a son, Felix.
Bonneville will be in conversation with Louis Bayard. In the words of the New York Times, Louis Bayard “reinvigorates historical fiction,” rendering the past “as if he’d witnessed it firsthand.” His acclaimed novels include The Pale Blue Eye, soon to be a Netflix motion picture starring Christian Bale, the national bestseller Courting Mr. Lincoln, Roosevelt's Beast, The School of Night, The Black Tower, and Mr. Timothy, as well as the highly praised young-adult novel, Lucky Strikes. A New York Times Notable author, he has been nominated for both the Edgar and Dagger awards, and his story, “Banana Triangle Six,” was chosen for The Best American Mystery Stories. His reviews and articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Salon. An instructor at George Washington University, he is the chair of the PEN/Faulkner Awards and was the author of the popular Downton Abbey recaps for the New York Times.
