The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), a land owners lobby group for England and Wales, has won the support of Hugh Bonneville for its forthcoming Can’t Get Online Week event.

Hugh Bonneville is perhaps best known for playing the Earl of Grantham in ITV's popular TV period drama, Downton Abbey. Next week he will be turning his attention to the broadband internet connectivity difficulties that so often plague rural regions, which he also suffers from at home.



The CLA's week long campaign, which runs from 30th October to 6th November 2011, is lobbying to ensure that every rural business and household can access a broadband connection of at least 5Mbps (Megabits per second).

The campaign will also see IT and social media expert, John Popham, touring rural communities in order to raise awareness of the problems. John will carry a petition with him for people with broadband problems to sign; there's also an e-petition for those who can get online: www.cla.org.uk/policy_work/petitions/.

As a side note William Worsley, the CLA president, claims that his ancestor, Frances, married the real-life Lord Grantham in the 18th Century, which is nice.