Thursday, 16 February 2023

 

Playing Under the Piano, by Hugh Bonneville.       Non-fiction.

 


            The only people who haven’t heard of the smash-hit TV series (with two full-length movies also snaring huge box-office returns) ‘Downton Abbey’, must be a lost tribe of the Amazon.  Seldom has a between-the-wars tale of British Aristocracy, complete with love between the classes, scandal, heartache and tragedy been so successfully brought to the screen, and universally loved by millions – of all classes.  And apart from being the wonderful scripts of Julian Fellowes, it fell to the perfectly-cast actors to cement the reality of their screen lives indelibly with viewers in every episode:  who hasn’t heaved a sigh of frustration at the thought of having to wait a whole week to find out the fate of Lady Mary or Lady Edith, or their darling little sister, who dies in childbirth, the child being the daughter of the chauffeur!

            And now we are fortunate to have a charming memoir written by Hugh Bonneville, who plays the aristocratic father of those three gels and, true to form, explains that no-one, least of all the cast, could predict the runaway popularity of the show but, needless to say, everyone was predictably delighted to have long-term work, for regardless of reputation, an actor’s life will never be 9-to-5, every week until they retire.

            Mr Bonneville is a very funny man.  And a wonderful writer, especially as he recounts his early years as a trainee Shakespearean  actor, along with such other hopefuls as Ralph Fiennes, receiving an excellent grounding in the classic plays of British literature at elite theatres - after attending Cambridge University with a half-hearted wish to study law, or Religion with a view to becoming a minister.  Yes, truly!  Our hero was a man without a clear mission until he caught the acting bug, and lucky for us that he did, for he has appeared in some memorable plays and films, all of which are entertainingly covered here, including ‘Notting Hill’ and the charming Paddington Bear films.  He shares wonderful memories of the luminaries he has worked with (and they are Legion), with never an unkind word from or for anybody, yet still imparting cosy, gossipy, charming little anecdotes that humanise such greats as Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, both of whom left him ‘awestruck’. 

            He explains the ‘mechanics’ of acting that allow the actor through his expertise –sleight-of-hand? – to lull the audience into thinking that every move and direction is natural, unforced on stage or before the cameras:  acting is indeed a precise and suble art, and Hugh Bonneville, once so unknown that ‘he couldn’t get a table at MacDonalds’ is now a literary luminary, as well as an acting one.  Big Macs, anyone?  SIX STARS.         

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