Downton Abbey may be coming to an end at Christmas, but that doesn't mean it won't ever come back.

Executive producer Gareth Neame has spoken of the chances of future generations being able to make a new version in some form in several decades time, in a similar fashion to Poldark or Poirot.

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"It definitely is the end of the television show... It suddenly occurred to me that in 30 years' time somebody could [bring it back]," he said at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

"There's nothing to stop a whole other generation of people when we've all retired. It'll be whoever owns NBC Universal at that point could say: 'Well, we own this property. We made it 40 years ago and let's set it on another planet or something'."

He added: "It's over, the television show will finish at the end of next season. I know everyone's now going to write down [that] it could have a future lease of life.

"There are no plans to do that, but it's a weird thing that happens with some titles that are 40 years old or so, but we won't be involved in it."

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He also noted that "one of the things I will miss about the future is that we'll never see baby George as the Earl of Grantham, that could be a great spin-off".

When asked about a potential spinoff in the future, ITV's director of television Peter Fincham said: "Who knows? But funnily enough, when we commissioned Downton Abbey, there was another script circulating which was a revival of Upstairs Downstairs.

"You can't say 'never revive'. Nobody can tell, but we are united at this point, this is the end, not a provisional end."

The first trailer for the final Downton Abbey series will air on ITV over the next week, ahead of its return in September.

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