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Five years ago, Michelle Dockery was a virtually unknown actress with just a handful of roles to her name.

But that changed virtually over night when she landed the role of Lady Mary Crawley in Downton Abbey – changing the 33-year-old’s life forever.

Recalling those early days of her new-found fame, she says: “The Sunday morning that the second episode of the first series was about to air, I went into my local newsagents to get a pint of milk and there was me, Laura and Jessica on the cover of three newspapers and I was only getting milk.

“I was in my pyjamas basically. It was weird.”

The actress, who is from Essex, admits she struggled with finding herself in the limelight.

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“That part of the whole thing has been something to adjust to,” she says.

“I found that a very big adjustment actually, being recognised, suddenly everyone’s talking about you, sometimes your private life is delved into, it’s scary but it kind of comes with being part of an enormous show that everyone loves and they want to know more about it.

(Image: Carnival Film & Television Ltd)

“You get used to it after a while.”

And while Downton is now one of the biggest shows in the world, Michelle revealed her family were less than keen when she told them she wanted to be a professional actress because the industry is so competitive.

(Image: Lia Toby/WENN.com)

She says: “That can be scary at times and initially for your parents: ‘What are you doing going into a profession that’s so completely unpredictable?’

But it’s so exciting because you never know where you’re going to end up, who you’re working with, which country you’re going to be in and that’s what’s really exciting about it.”

(Image: ITV)

With Downton coming to a close, Michelle, who is due to star as Jim Broadbent’s daughter in upcoming film The Sense of An Ending, now has more time to take on jobs on the other side of the pond as her cut glass tones in the show have made her the most in-demand British voice in America.

But she reveals neither her nor her co-star and friend Laura Carmichael have any plans to move there.

She smiles: “We might go on holiday the two of us.”