[BOOK REVIEW]
Hugh Bonneville (Hachette Australia: Little, Brown) 2022, 372pp, RRP $34.99 (paperback); $55.00 (hardback); $16.99 (e-book); $39.99 (audiobook)
Bonneville’s autobiography is a little uneventful compared to many other life stories, with a decided lack of sex scandals, drug orgies, Satanic rituals or the like. However, it proves a pleasing read nonetheless simply because he’s such a sweetheart.
Detailing his early life (including, yes, playing under the piano), this then gets into the business of how he came to be an actor, and, again, it seems (as usual) that he just sort of drifted into it, with a fair whack of talent, a dose of British charisma, and a little luck.
Lengthy accounts of some of his early theatrical efforts do go on (and on), but once he gets into movies things pick up, right from his very first screen credit, Kenneth Branagh’s ridiculously overblown Frankenstein back in 1994, with him featuring in a scene with Ken and one of his (Hugh’s) great heroes, John Cleese.
There are also some amusing details concerning his role in Iris, where he played the young Jim Broadbent (who he never actually met), and in director John Landis’ all-star misfire Burke And Hare. But chances are most of those who’ll be keen to read this are mostly interested in his experiences in the whole Downton Abbey thing, from the very first whispers that a part might be going (or it could be instead taken by his good-natured nemesis, Gary Oldman) something like ten years ago, to endlessly getting the second movie made despite all the (you guessed it) COVID lockdowns.
Dave Bradley
This title is available through the Hachette Australia website. Click HERE to purchase your copy.
