Hugh Bonneville

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2016

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway is Hugh Bonneville.

Known around the world for his portrayal of Lord Grantham in ITV's hugely popular Downton Abbey, he made British audiences laugh with his portrayal of the hapless Ian Fletcher in the BBC comedies Twenty Twelve and W1A and charmed audiences of all ages as Mr Brown in the animated film, Paddington Bear.

His immense range as an actor has ensured he's seldom been out of work since joining the National Theatre in 1987, but his thespian leanings started much earlier - writing, performing & even creating tickets for his very own dramatic productions - performed for his family at home. He was born in London to a surgeon and a former nurse and grew up with two older siblings. At junior school he refused to let a teacher put him off his passion for acting which he continued to pursue while doing a degree in Theology at Cambridge.

He chose an acting career over law, and following a brief time at drama school, his first professional role was "bashing a cymbal" in A Midsummer Night's Dream at London's Regent's Park theatre in 1986. He joined the National the following year and achieved his ambition of being a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1991. His television debut was as a conman in the ITV drama Chancer and his first appearance on the big screen was in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, directed by Kenneth Branagh. He appeared opposite George Clooney in the 2014 film The Monuments Men and was the voice of Father Christmas in the BBC's adaptation of the Julia Donaldson picture book Stick Man.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Disks from BBC Radio 4.
0:06.0	For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.
0:10.0	For more information about the program, please visit BBC.co.uk.
0:17.0	Radio 4. My My castaway this week is the actor Hugh Bonneville. It really doesn't matter what your taste.
0:39.7	If you've been watching any British film and TV at all for the past 20 years, then you've been
0:44.8	watching him. As Lord Grandsham in the worldwide hit Downton Abbey, his portrayal of a very
0:49.7	particular type of fair-minded English top-tier toff even had the Democrats in the White House hooked.
0:56.0	As Mr Brown in the movie Paddington, his heart was charmingly won over by a little animated bear from Peru.
1:03.0	He played opposite Kate Winslet in the movie Iris to stunning effect.
1:06.0	And as Ian Fletcher, head of values in the BBC's hit comedy W1A,
1:11.0	he has nailed the nebulous existence of the modern manager. Clear then that he has the significant
1:16.9	gift of range. His first professional role was bashing a symbol in a midsummer night's dream.
1:23.0	As a child, he would often write, perform and even create the tickets for his very own little plays,
1:29.0	with family and friends dragooned into watching.
1:32.0	He says, I wasn't born with a silver spoon but I was
1:35.4	born with a very nice set of crockery. I'm aware of the great start I was given
1:39.8	solid middle-class professional, public school education.
1:43.8	I've always been determined to make my parents proud, to show them they haven't wasted their efforts
1:49.7	on me.
1:50.7	So welcome, Hugh Bonneville.
1:52.1	After six hugely successful seasons, the last
1:55.1	episode of Downton Abbey aired here in Britain of course just at Christmas. We
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.