EXCLUSIVE: Hugh Bonneville chats to Hits Radio Breakfast about his new film 'To Olivia'

It is based on the life of Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal

Author: Natalie ReesPublished 19th Feb 2021
Last updated 19th Feb 2021

Fleur East and the Hits Radio Breakfast team caught up with acting legend Hugh Bonneville to chat about his new Sky Original film To Olivia.

To Olivia is a drama portraying the life of famous author Roald Dahl and his American actress wife Patricia Neal after the tragic loss of their seven-year-old daughter Olivia.

Roald Dahl was an exceptional writer with an famously expansive imagination, penning incredibly successful children’s books including: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach.

Although his work is renowned worldwide for being a magical escape. Along with his Hollywood star wife, Dahl battled with grief at home and struggled with mental health problems.

Hugh confessed that he didn’t know much about Dahl prior to the role. He said, “For me, I didn’t know anything about Roald Dahl. I had read some of his books and his short stories and knew a bit from interviews but really nothing.

"So to try and explore him I read up on him and it was fascinating. A very complicated man and a complicated marriage but what they went through with the loss of their daughter Olivia to measles when she was just seven years old was not an easy story to read or try and portray.”

The film stars Downton Abbey star Hugh as Roald Dahl and It’s A Sin actress Keeley Hawes as Patricia Neal.

Hugh added, “The film is about every parent’s worst nightmare which is the loss of a child. So you’ve got an all-too-painfully recognisable story but actually with the backdrop of a couple who we sort-of know about, certainly Roald.

“You can be pretty nasty when you’re going through pain and Roald was catatonic with grief and lashed out at Patricia too I believe. But she really did keep the family together and through it they really do find a bond.”

He added that although the film was a journey through grief, it does come with an uplifting ending.

“I hope you found it a positive film in the end, they do come through it, they are united and their creativity is what really keeps them going.”

Check out more of Downton Abbey:

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Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary Talbot and Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham


Harry Hadden-Paton as Herbert Pelham, 7th Marquess of Hexham and Laura Carmichael as Edith Pelham, Marchioness of Hexham


Jim Carter as Charles Carson and Phyllis Logan as Elsie Hughes


Joanne Froggatt as Anna Bates and Brendan Coyle as John Bates


Lesley Nicol as Beryl Patmore and Sophie McShera as Daisy Mason


Michael C. Fox as Andrew 'Andy' Parker and Rob James-Collier as Thomas Barrow


Allen Leech as Tom Branson and Matthew Goode as Henry Talbot


Douglas Reith as Richard Grey, Baron Merton and Penelope Wilton as Isobel Grey, Baroness Merton


Kevin Doyle as Joseph Molesley and Raquel Cassidy as Phyllis Baxter


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