Variety

Mar 2, 2015 • Post A Comment

One of the most popular cast members on “Downton Abbey” is leaving the hit drama series. Variety reports that Maggie Smith, who plays the Dowager Countess of Grantham, said the next season of the BBC/PBS show will be her last.

“The season five finale just aired in the U.S., and there has been speculation that the series will stop after the sixth season, but whatever the show’s fate, Smith told the Sunday Times her part is coming to an end,” Variety reports.

The reports quotes Smith, 80, saying: “They say this is the last one, and I can’t see how it could go on. I mean, I certainly can’t keep going. To my knowledge, I must be 110 by now. We’re into the late 1920s.”

However, Smith also indicated she will continue to act.

Said Smith: “When you’re not working it’s scary, and when you are working it’s scary, because you don’t know if you’ve got the energy to get through the day. But the bleakness of not doing it, and missing out on the friendships that you make, is too much to bear.”