‘Their lives were full of tragedy'

Hugh Bonneville and Keeley Hawes on playing Roald Dahl and wife Patricia Neal in a drama that tells a heartbreaking true story

- Sean Marland

TO OLIVIA
NEW FRI / SKY PREMIERE / 11.05AM & 8PM / DRAMA

Roald Dahl’s phizz-whizzing stories have captured imaginations for generations. But soon after the publication of James and the Giant Peach, with his career still struggling to take off, the eccentric author and his wife, Hollywood star Patricia Neal, were left devastated by the tragic death of their seven-year-old daughter, Olivia.

The heartbreaking story is the inspiration behind Sky Premiere’s latest feature film, To Olivia. Set in 1962, it opens with the couple – played by Hugh Bonneville and Keeley Hawes – living happily in the Buckinghamshire countryside with their three children.

But their world is turned upside down when eldest daughter Olivia dies from encephalitis after contracting measles, years before a vaccine had been developed.

Here, Hugh, 57, and Keeley, who turns 45 on 10 February, tell us more...

Roald and Patricia were married for 30 years, divorcing in 1983. How would you describe their lives at this point in the 1960s?