TWO years ago Hugh Bonneville was just another hard-working British actor whose plummy vowels and cherubic cheeks lent themselves to characters good (Bernie, the stockbroker who never gets the girl in “Notting Hill”) and not so good (Henleigh Grandcourt, the aristocrat who sends the girl fleeing in “Daniel Deronda”).
Then he crisped his consonants and stiffened his upper lip to portray Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, the lord of the manor in “Downton Abbey,” the “Masterpiece” megahit on PBS. And hearts around the world swooned.
In “Twenty Twelve,” to have its United States premiere on BBC America on Thursday at 9 p.m., Mr. Bonneville trades his Savile Row tailcoat and red spencer jacket for spandex gym shorts and slept-in trousers — all while keeping a straight face — to play Ian Fletcher, the beleaguered head of the Olympic Deliverance Commission. The mockumentary series won the 2011 British Comedy Award for best TV sitcom.
In a recent phone interview from London, Mr. Bonneville spoke with Kathryn Shattuck about the convergence of fiction and reality, and becoming an international sensation at 48. These are excerpts from their conversation:
READ THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERVIEW HERE:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/arts/television/hugh-bonneville-star-of-the-olympics-comedy-twenty-twelve.html?_r=1
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