Hugh Bonneville

At times this faux fly-on the wall documentary seemed like an actual fly-on-the-wall documentary as the hapless personnel on the Olympic Deliverance Committee lurched from one crisis to the next in ways that mirrored their real-life counterparts. Hugh Bonneville has never been better than as the charming, well-meaning boss Ian Fletcher and Jessica Hynes was brilliantly awful as dead-eyed, pin-headed PR officer Siobhan with her memorably daft ideas - like combining the Olympics with the Diamond Jubilee. Jubilympics, anyone?

Hugh Bonneville on playing curmudgeonly tramp Mr Stink

The Downton Abbey actor joins Sheridan Smith, Johnny Vegas and Pudsey the dog in BBC's festive adaptation of David Walliams' children's story.

David Walliams's book about a homeless man who is befriended by a lonely young girl, Chloe, was written with kids in mind, so it's stuffed with references to bottoms, belches, farts and smells. But there's some subtle moralising and tackling of prejudices.

Sheridan Smith is fabulous as a potential MP whose politics are slightly to the right of Hitler, while it was genius to cast Hugh Bonneville as the odoriferous Mr Stink and BGT's Pudsey as his canine companion. Funny and heart-warming, it even has a cameo from Walliams himself.

Chloe Crumb is that most common figure in redemptive childrens' fiction - the lonely outsider. Her mum's an unbearable aspirant MP, her dad's downtrodden, her sister's a goody-two-shoes and she doesn't have any friends. Soon, she's befriending pungent gentleman of the road Mr Stink and learning all sorts of life-lessons as a result. The underlying message - everyone's got problems and we could all use a little extra kindness - resonates with the season, even if the regular fug of CGI miasma wreathing Stink fails to compensate for the absence of Quentin Blake's wonderful illustrations in David Walliams's source book. Some of the dialogue is too trite to be entirely explained away by the target demographic - 'I realise now how important family is,' declaims Sheridan Smith as the pushy mum towards the end. But it's elevated by spirited performances from Smith, Johnny Vegas, a game Hugh Bonneville as the titular tramp and particularly, newcomer Nell Tiger Free as Chloe.

Mr Stink (BBC1, Sunday), adapted from David Walliams's kids' book, proved that winning a TV talent contest doesn't always mean immediately disappearing into obscurity. It stars Britain's Got Talent winner Pudsey - a half-decent performance, though he has a tendency to overact. The standout stars are Sheridan Smith as a slightly Nadine Dorriesy mum and the remarkably natural Nell Tiger Free (child actors have to have names like that) as young Chloe. Is that really Hugh Bonneville - Lord Grantham - in there, behind the beard and the stink?

Anyway, it's lovely - funny, warm, with a bit of a message (it's nice to be nice to people) but also some wickedness. And while so many kids and family shows are nostalgic, this feels contemporary; the nasty kids on the bus talk like real nasty kids on the bus.

Children's books are a familiar second-career path for people in public life, from Prince Charles to Ricky Gervais. Happily, even for a busy person, David Walliams's efforts seem a cut above the celebrity norm. The tale of a homeless man befriended by a middle-class schoolgirl, this adaptation features a suitably strong cast. Benidorm regulars Johnny Vegas and Sheridan Smith play the parents of 12-year-old Chloe, who invites a tramp (Hugh Bonneville) to hang out in her family's garden shed. Gentle family comedy, featuring Walliams himself as the prime minister.

David Walliams stars in this family comedy, adapted from his own children's book, joined by a weighty cast including Hugh Bonneville, Sheridan Smith, Johnny Vegas and Pudsey - not the charity bear but the dancing dog who won this year's Britain's Got Talent. Bullied, lonely Chloe (Nell Tiger Free) is ignored by her politician mother (Smith), so invites local tramp Mr Stink (Bonneville) and his faithful hound Duchess (Pudsey) to stay in their garden shed. Chloe soon discovers there's more to her aromatic guest than meets the eye. Or indeed nose.

Hugh Bonneville: Lord of the mings

Actor goes from Downton to down-and-out for BBC drama Mr Stink. The star tells James Rampton why it's not a role to be sniffed at.

Hugh Bonneville was at the centre of my favourite dramatic creation of the year, Twenty Twelve. His character, Ian Fletcher, was head of the Olympic Deliverance Commission.

"Deliverance" was a typical word for members of the commission to use. Throughout the series, the level of debased language was high, if you follow me.

Until the actual Olympics arrived and ruined everything by being delivered rather better than the show had led us to expect, the bunch of blunderers portrayed by the show looked and sounded as if they could have stayed up there forever. My favourite cretin on the squad was Siobhan Sharp, played by Jessica Hynes. Some critics thought that her hooting patter was unlikely but it matched a lot of the PR stuff to be heard in what I am increasingly reluctant to call real life.

BBC creates a (Mr) Stink in 3D

If you're among those with a 3D TV, Hugh Bonneville's tramp may be wafting into your living room this Christmas.