It's never happened to me before, in my career, and never will again. It's a one-off experience. It's a rare treat to have a cast together for six years. Crews come and go, and a few of them have been there throughout, but not many. It's rare, in my experience, after 26 years, to have had a proper company in a show that enjoys each other's company, and who is such a fine bunch of people and actors. To have struck a chord with people, and to have had that combination, is extremely rare.

I've had people come up to me in the past and say they enjoyed whatever show I've been in.

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

I had girlfriends, but settling down was the last thing on my mind.

We were all expecting to finish [Downton Abbey] after Series 1, actually. And then, it got extended to Series 3, and that's when two of our much loved and much missed friends left. And then, it was going to be done with Series 5, but Julian Fellowes said, "I'd like to do one more." So it's been a series of extensions, rather than wondering how much longer we can go on for.

After World War II, the major estates really did collapse.

In Britain, the press want to kill a show by revealing what's coming up and spoiling the pleasure.