Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw’s new novel Night of Triumph proudly carries an endorsement from Lord Grantham himself — Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville.
“Peter Bradshaw brilliantly captures the atmosphere of a giddy night when anything could happen — and it does,” the actor proclaims on the book’s cover.
Coincidentally Bradshaw has previously heaped similar praise on Bonneville’s abilities. In his review of the 2002 movie Iris, Bradshaw observed that though Bonneville often “gets cast in silly-ass roles, he is a character actor of enormous depth and subtlety”.
But it turns out that the relationship goes deeper than mere mutual admiration. When Bonneville was a Cambridge undergrad he was flabbergasted to be cast as Romeo in his very first term — and treading the boards beside him was none other than a young Peter Bradshaw. Perhaps Bradshaw’s book reminds Bonneville of certain wild and “giddy nights” the two of them had together as students.
