Hugh Bonneville has said landing his role in Downton Abbey marked a “strange gear shift” in his acting career.
The 58-year-old British actor starred as patriarch of the Crawley family, Robert Crawley, the seventh Earl of Grantham, in the hit ITV drama between 2010 and 2015.
Appearing on The Graham Norton Show, Bonneville was asked about the impact the series had on his life, to which he said: “People think it was my big break but I had been acting for 25-plus years before then and happily so, but it was a completely strange gear shift.
“When we did series one no one was particularly interested as everyone thought costume drama was dead, and then suddenly it exploded and had a huge effect around the world.”
The show ran for six series on TV before being continued in two films – the first released in 2019 and the second, Downton Abbey: A New Era, earlier this year.
Bonneville added: “It was very, very peculiar and wonderful at the same time. And, certainly without Downton I wouldn’t have met Paddington.”
He played Henry Brown in the 2014 live action Paddington film, alongside Ben Whishaw and Nicole Kidman.
Also on the show, British actress Lashana Lynch spoke about the physical demands of her latest film, The Woman King, which was released earlier in the week.
She told Norton: “Because everyone did their own stunts they were so deeply committed – we were in the gym six days a week for five hours a day in order to represent what you see on screen.
“It was hard work throwing men around and using machetes and I discovered muscles I didn’t know I had. It was incredible.”
Lynch, 34, plays Izogie in the film, which sees a group of all-female warriors protecting the African kingdom of Dahomey.
When the warriors face a new threat, Nanisca, played by Viola Davis, trains the next generation of recruits to fight against a foreign enemy which is determined to destroy their way of life.
Speaking about working with a cast and crew of strong women such as Oscar winner Davis, Lynch said: “It has an amazing cast and is an epic drama with real stunts, real life, real women, real power and real inspiration.
“Working with an all-female crew was fantastic and very rare.”
The Graham Norton Show airs on October 7 at 10.40pm on BBC One.
