Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville shocked fans earlier this week after he appeared on the British talk show, The One Show looking a lot slimmer — and, let’s just say it’s a far cry from his Lord Grantham days.
The actor, 56, showed off his slimmed-down physique on the BBC evening show. The television star was also sporting a new haircut, which added to the transformation.
Fans couldn’t get enough of Hugh’s dramatic weight loss, with some viewers taking it one step further, saying he was “unrecognisable”
Fan @JackieRimmer wrote on Twitter: “Had to do a double-take. Didn’t recognize Hugh Bonneville at first. Looking amazing.”
While @rachyann_rachy added: “Hugh Bonneville is unrecognisable on #TheOneShow he’s lost loads of weight.” And @pepperkitecat wrote: “I almost didn’t recognise Hugh Bonneville on #TheOneShow. Is that really him?”
Hugh is best known for playing Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham in the hit drama series Downton Abbey. The series came to a tearful end in 2015 after six years. Speaking at the time, Hugh said he hoped to enjoy his broadened career prospects.
“I’m going to try not to do something pre-war for 18 months so I can get away from these stiff collars and the rash they bring”, he told the BBC at the time.
Hugh’s dramatic transformation comes just a few weeks after he opened up about the ongoing pandemic, telling the Crawley Observer: “I had have had friends whose parents have had it. I have a couple of friends who very very nearly died, though fortunately none of my contemporaries have died. But you do see the younger generation feeling like they are invincible.
“But really the lockdown has given me time to get involved more locally, and it has given me a sense of what matters, and that’s things like love and family rather than just trying to be a hamster in a wheel.
“I have been extremely fortunate that over the last ten years I have been able to select projects more and more carefully. I do so increasingly, and having become an orphan (with the loss of his father earlier this year, before the crisis) at the age of 56, it does make you reflect more about what is actually important.”