Stars’ friendship is in their DNA
IN a tale of lockdown friendship, Hugh Bonneville and John Bishop met by chance in a Covid vaccine centre.
It’s an unlikely pairing, but with John new to the area, having just moved to the South Downs, and Hugh volunteering in his local vaccine centre, the friendship seemed fated.
Cementing their friendship, the Downton Abbey actor and the top comedian now embark on an ancestry road trip, with both keen to investigate roots in Ireland.
John tells Hugh: “Anyone watching will be surprised that we’re mates because we’ll find that you’re born of lords and I’m born of footmen.”
John discovers a trailblazing ancestor, who made the journey from Ireland to Liverpool.
Despite a few brushes with the law, John’s three times great grandfather Patrick Reardon built a business in the booming industry of salt.
Travelling to Dublin, John also uncovers his three times great grandfather, Andrew Keegan, who was a skilled musical instrument maker and rousing Trade Unionist.
Hugh has always wanted to know the truth to a family name, and his middle name, Bonniwell, which morphed into his stage name Bonneville.
Hugh discovers his inspirational three times great grandfather Richard Bonniwell, a naval architect who dedicated his life in the 1820s to making safer working conditions for sailors before building a school in Wales. He then finds out that it’s not all ‘upstairs’ glamour – he unearths his family’s working class origins, in his ancestor, John Freeman, a journeyman baker.
And as is no surprise, there’s a bombshell connection between the stars that neither could have predicted…