Playing Under the Piano

Hugh Bonneville is one of Britain's best-loved actors - having starred in, among others, Downton Abbey, W1 and Paddington. From getting his big break as third shepherd in the school nativity play to navigating Highclere Castle's complex Labrador policies, Hugh brilliantly evokes his life on stage and screen.
What is it like working with Maggie Smith, Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench and Ralph Fiennes? As a naturally gifted writer and uproariously funny storyteller Hugh brings us up close and personal - though his wit is always kindly, and invariably directed at himself.
There is shade as well as light to his memoir: he writes very touchingly of caring for his beloved, Alzheimer-suffering father, and of the mother whose life of secret work only emerged after her death. Humour keeps bubbling to the surface, however: whether telling stories of his B&H, G&T, horse-racing addicted grandmother, how the instruction 'call my agent' can backfire horribly, or working with a two-foot-high animated bear called Paddington.