Sign up to FREE email alerts from Mirror - celebs Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Hugh Bonneville "had a lump" in his throat when he read his final Downton Abbey script.

The 51-year-old actor has opened up about receiving his final script for the ITV period drama and admitted that while he thinks the show's creator and writer, Julian Fellowes, has ended it spectacularly, he was so emotional about his final words as Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham that anything would have moved him to tears.

Asked if he's happy with the way it ends at the launch of the sixth and final series, Hugh joked to BANG Showbiz: "The spaceship took me by surprise but, that aside, I thought it unfolded in a way that felt entirely right for the show.

"I got a lump in my throat reading it but I think that was as much because I knew it was the last ever episode that I was going to read and they are scripts that are a pleasure to read.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

"They're not packed with technicalities, they're written in a light style ... It's all from character, it's all from what people say to each other and you can cover up the names and know who's speaking and that's a great quality in Julian as a writer - the voices are there on the page."

(Image: ITV)

The Paddington star thinks fans of the show will be happy with the way Julian has decided to bring it to an end.

He shared: "I feel that the way the stories are either resolved or left open is entirely right."

Hugh's co-star and on-screen wife Elizabeth McGovern - who plays Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham - added: "I really felt satisfied by it and I think that the audience that's been faithful to it for these number of years will feel satisfied, they'll feel fed."

Downton Abbey series six begins on ITV on September 20 at 9pm.