Although he offers a number of anecdotes about his parents, siblings, wife and son, he remains largely private about his personal life. Playing Under the Piano is just what you want an actor’s memoir to be and shows an actor’s life to be just how you’d imagine it to be. It is both humorous and emotional and the reader hopes more memoirs will be forthcoming as he continues his journey into the future. The memoir is divided into sections discussing Bonneville’s childhood, theater years and film roles.

Playing Under the Piano Hugh Bonneville In Conversation: Playing Under the Piano

Whether telling stories of working with divas, Dames, or a bear with a penchant for marmalade, this account of his life as an actor is richly entertaining. The products on offer right now are the best they have ever been, and there are digital pianos out there that behave exactly like the real deal. Bonneville is also good at thumbnail characterizations, bringing less well-known players affectionately and vividly to life. I love the little secrets and backstage gossip he gives us, not only from the theatre but from some of his best loved works including W1A, Downton Abbey, Monument Men and Paddington.From his stage career to his roles in Notting Hill, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Paddington, The Hollow Crown, The Monuments Men, Iris, Mansfield Park and his iconic portrayal of the patriarch, Robert Crowley, in Downton Abbey, Hugh Bonneville has had a varied career and is still going strong. As a child, he was determined to become an actor, an ambition that lasted throughout school and studying theology at Cambridge. It gives the readers something to take away and gives them something extra to think about when watching them. It sounds quite an exclusive club with lots of luvvies and eccentric ways but not a world that has ever come my way living in the sticks! The benefit of learning to play on a piano is that the sound is acoustic because it's generated by a string.

Playing Under the Piano - Book Tour - Hugh Bonneville Online Playing Under the Piano - Book Tour - Hugh Bonneville Online

There’s no mean-spirited gossip in this memoir, just plenty of humorous self-deprecation and some laugh-out-loud anecdotes—like the time an actor in a live theater performance was popping peanuts while making a confession and ended up choking and passing out.

The Casio Privia PX770 may be the most affordable slimline pianos in this guide, but trust us, it can certainly hang with the big boys. You will need to learn where the notes are located on the piano, what they sound like, and how the note is written on the staff when you’re reading sheet music. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor.

Piano by D. H. Lawrence | Poetry Foundation Piano by D. H. Lawrence | Poetry Foundation

And I’m still mystified by his proud assertion that he’s “a stickler for credibility within a story”. Below we've listed what we believe are the best pianos out there right now, featuring both acoustic and digital pianos, as well as stage and slimline options from the best piano brands in the world. The low points included a catastrophic audition for a role that eventually went to Gary Oldman, and a furious letter he wrote to David Nicholls after not being cast in his mini-series, I Saw You (he includes Nicholls' generous reply). It manages to combine the functionality of a digital piano with the real hammers of an acoustic upright.I would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone, whether you’re a fan of his or not (but, quite frankly, I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t be). Early on, he began thinking of the theater as a “magic toybox,” although he originally thought he would become a lawyer and also contemplated theology until drama school beckoned.