ACTOR Hugh Bonneville, best known for playing the Earl of Grantham in ITV’s Downton Abbey series, visited Bordon to open the new premises of town charity Furniture Helpline.

“The event was a great success and was well attended by councillors, the trustees of Furniture Helpline, our staff and volunteers and the general public,” said office manager Diane Page.

“Our special guest, Hugh Bonneville, formally opened the premises and was then given a tour of the charity’s showroom.

“He chatted with volunteers about our new workshop and our plans for using it to refurbish furniture and provide a men’s shed venue.

“We had a representative from FareShare Southern Central to promote the FareShare initiative (the redistribution of surplus food), which Furniture Helpline is very involved with.

“It was great to see so many members of the public attend to show an interest in our charity, and we made lots of sales of our good quality, donated furniture.

“Hopefully, the day raised public awareness of what we do and promoted our new location.”

The day before his visit, the actor had been the guest on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs show.

Mr Bonneville, 52, who lives in Milland, told presenter Kirsty Young how he had grown up writing, and starring in, his own plays.

He said the track he would most like to take to the island was Cass Elliot’s Dream a Little Dream of Me; the book A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and the luxury item Lego with instruction booklets.

The new home of the Furniture Helpline charity is Hampshire House, in Hampshire Road, Bordon, where it moved to from the Woolmer Way Trading Estate.

The Furniture Helpline is open from Monday to Friday, from 9am to 4pm, with furniture viewing up to 3pm.

For more details, call 01420 489000 or e-mail info@furniturehelp

line.org.uk.