While audiences may not agree with her, Dame Maggie Smith says that she is relieved that Downton Abbey is finishing saying that it couldn’t go on ‘forever and ever’.

Copyright: [Wenn]



Speaking to Graham Norton, the actress went as far as to say that she is GLAD the show is coming to an end at the end of the year.

“I’m glad it’s over, I really am,” she said adding that her character couldn’t possibly get any older.

“By the time we finished, she must have been about 110. It couldn’t go on and on. It just didn’t make sense,” she said.

Copyright: [ITV]



The current series of Downton Abbey will be the last set to wrap things up with a hotly anticipated Christmas special.

Dame Maggie also admits in the interview that it’s only since she took on the role of Countess Violet Crawley that she’s started to be recognised by the public.

"I was in Waitrose the other day, and a little boy was at the checkout with his mother and he kept looking at me. When I asked him, ‘Can I help you?’, he said, 'No, it’s alright. It’ll come to me in a minute.’ It was so lovely.”

Watch the full interview tonight on The Graham Norton Show at 10.35pm on BBC One.