It’s twilight on a bleak February evening and I’m sprinting down Castle Hill dodging students whilst frantically keying nonsensical messages into my mobile phone, I’m getting the most exercise I’ve had in Lent term so far. Why the amateur athletics? Rather than a week five bout of supervision amnesia, I’m running late for a much more important appointment. Lord Grantham of Downton Abbey fame has come to Cambridge.

Those of you not acquainted with the Lord might know him by his other name, Hugh Bonneville. You might also know him under the guise of a rather unprepossessing tramp called Mr. Stink, or as Ian Fletcher, Head of Deliverance for the 2012 Olympic Games. Indeed, Bonneville is that rare breed of actor who can put on many faces without you necessarily remembering his original identity. It is as a Lord, though, that Bonneville has really become a national treasure.

Hugh has come to speak at the Cambridge Union, and as I pant my way towards the redbrick building, I already know what my first question will be. As a former Cantabrigian at Corpus Christi college, I ask him about his defining memory of his time as an undergraduate. Rehearsals rooms and auditions, that’s what he remembers: “I’m afraid the School of Divinity didn’t see as much of me as it should have done.” Wearing jeans and a hoody, Bonneville is more the leisurely student than a carefully coifed member of the aristocracy: there is no hint of Grantham here. I feel instantly at ease with Hugh; he emanates the calm confidence of an experienced interviewee.

Whilst Hugh might have neglected his duties in the library, he certainly didn’t ignore his thespian calling. He soon gets nostalgic about putting on plays with architects, arch and anthers, even medics, including one project involving constructing a rostra in Corpus Christi Old Court. I can’t supress a laugh as he tells me his best anecdote: being directed by a student from the top of a tree in Newham Gardens as he put up lights, exclaiming: “it looks great from up here!” It seems the thrill of those past experiences hasn’t left him.

Of course, we need to talk Downton. My not so sly attempt to gossip about the next series leaves Bonneville tight-lipped. He assures me it will be worth the wait until September, when he hopes the audience will still be loyal. Whilst the future of Lord Grantham seems assured, I want to know more about one particularly unusual past role: how did he prepare for Mr. Stink the tramp? “Basically, I grew a very shaggy beard and looked smelly,” is his wry response. It turns out Mr. Stink is actually quite a posh tramp, and Bonneville himself provides an intriguing perspective on the character: “it’s what could happen to Lord Grantham if things go wrong.” Now there’s a Downton twist you might not see coming.

As a man who’s made it from a Cambridge thespian to a world-renowned Lord in one of ITV’s most successful dramas, I finally ask Bonneville about his tips for our own young actors. “You’ve got to a have a thick skin for all the rejections and a thin skin for all the roles.” Whether you bask in the limelight or not, I think that’s a sage bit of advice we can all take to heart, from the Lord himself.