Hugh Bonneville has pleaded with parents to "resist handing over the iPad" to their kids, and get them reading instead.

The Downton Abbey star has been making waves with his debut children's book, titled Rory Sparkes and the Elephant in the Room, which tells the story of a young boy keen to escape the boredom of school by going on an adventure.

Seeing the response to the tome, first released last October, has been a rewarding experience for Hugh, and he's keen for it to help inspire young people to turn to books instead of technology,

Hugh, a dad himself to now adult son Felix, told Time Leisure magazine: "I cherished (reading) hugely as a kid… my father was a very busy surgeon and always took time to find 15 minutes to sit down and breathe out at the end of the day and share that time.

"It's difficult today because we all get torn in different directions, but if parents can resist just handing over the iPad… making that time together to reconnect is invaluable."

Hugh is arguably most famous for playing Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, in beloved TV show Downton Abbey.

However, he's unsure whether he'd actually like to have lived in the early 1900's, when the programme is set.

He mused: "In many ways, no, because of the technology and the advances that we've made, but in many ways, yes, also because of the technology and the advances we've made.

"A telephone call used to be a treasured thing. You took pleasure in composing your thoughts for a letter.

"Now everything is so instant that you wonder, do we actually say what we mean or do we just jettison words for the hell of it?"

As for what attracted him to the programme, Hugh admitted it was the optimism in the script.

He said: "When I first read the script, I was interested in the characters… they all had individual voices. I wanted to know what happened next.

"And I think there is an underlying goodwill in the show… there was a sense of community underneath it that people related to and cared about."