You have no idea what's going to happen [in Downton Abbey] until you get the script. We roughly knew a couple of the key points that were going to happen, but when I got the last episode, I turned to the last page to check that I was still alive.

I always try to look for the best in most places.

I have an excellent internal compass.

The press mainly want to destroy a program by revealing what's coming up. For some reason, soaps like doing that.

Certain stories that you want to see resolve in certain ways are, and some aren't, but that's life.

At 19, you know everything; by the time you're 40, you haven't got a clue.

When you are in the eye of the storm, you are often not aware of the whiplash around you.