To Olivia: what is the Roald Dahl film starring Hugh Bonneville about, where to watch it, and release date

Road Dahl is known for his funny, witty and compelling children’s books - from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to James and the Giant Peach.

However, his life was not all about Wonka bars and Big Friendly Giants, as Sky Cinema’s latest movie ‘To Olivia’ will reveal.

Directed by John Hay (The Truth about Love, Lost Christmas), this heartbreaking Sky Cinema Original movie will explore how Dahl and his wife, Patricia Neal, coped with the loss of their young daughter.

So, what is the movie about and who is Olivia? This is what you need to know.

What is To Olivia about?

The movie is based on the true events of Dahl and Neal’s life in the year after they lost their daughter Olivia to measles in 1962, when she was aged just seven.

While Dahl, played by Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville, is considered one of the most talented children’s authors of all time, he also had an unsociable and unfriendly side, which is explored in the film.

The movie also looks at the relationship between Neal and Dahl as the author grieves Olivia’s death, while hitting out at his then-wife as she attempts to make a return to acting.

According to Director John Hay, while the movie delves into Dahl’s grief, it focuses more on the impact of his behaviour on Neal as she attempted to suppress her feelings in order to support her husband.

Hay told BT TV: “In a way, this is Patricia Neal’s story. You start watching a story about Roald Dahl and then you see how he makes the death of his daughter into his grief and how Patricia has to subsume her grief.

“I think that was so true of women in that period, which really interested me."

He added: “We’ve all experienced grief in different ways and whether you’re a famous movie star or writer, it’s something we all go through.

“The film goes through the five stages of grief, anger, bargaining, depression, denial and finally acceptance.”

Hay has said he is a huge fan of Roald Dahl, having read and carried around Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a young boy. More than 50 years later he has described making a movie about Dahl as a true privilege.

Who was Patricia Neal?

Played in To Olivia by Keeley Hawes (It’s A Sin, Finding Alice), Neal was an American actress from Tennessee, who married Dahl in 1953.

Her roles included World War II widow Helen Benson in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Emily Eustace Failenson in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).

She then starred as housekeeper Alma Brown in Hud - the role she first took up in 1963 following the death of her seven-year-old daughter - and won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

In 1978, Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center in Knoxville dedicated the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center to her, in thanks to her awareness raising and advocacy for people suffering from paralysis after her son’s accident.

When did Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal meet?

Neal and Dahl met when he moved to New York and the pair married in 1953.

Two years later, they welcomed their first child, a daughter named Olivia.

The couple spent seven years together in the States before they returned to the UK and raised their family in Buckinghamshire, England.

In 1883, she and Dahl divorced before Neal returned to the US.

Neal passed away in 2010 at her home in Massachusetts.

How many children did the couple have?

Olivia was one of five children Neal and Dahl shared.

The couple welcomed their eldest, Olivia Twenty in 1955, followed by her sister Chantal Sophia "Tessa" in 1957.

Theo Matthew was born in 1960 and at just four-months old, a taxi crashed into his leaving him with brain damage.

The couple then returned to England, where they welcomed Ophelia Magdalena in 1964 and Lucy Neal in 1965.

Neal and Dahl also have two grandchildren - Sophie and Phoebe Dahl. Sophie is a British model and cookbook author. Phoebe is a fashion designer, philanthropist and women’s rights activist.

Where can I watch ‘To Olivia’?

You can watch Watch To Olivia on Sky Cinema from February 19 with the NOW TV Sky Cinema Pass.