Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery: It's good to end on a high note

Downton Abbey's leading lady said it is right to call time on the award-winning period drama.

Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary Crawley, said there were "many tears shed" as the cast filmed Downton's last ever scenes, with the final series due to begin on ITV at 9pm today.

Fans have been torn over whether the drama could continue, while creator Julian Fellowes hinted last month that the show could have an afterlife on the big screen.

In an interview with the Sunday Express S magazine, Dockery said it "feels like the right time" for the curtain call.

She said: "I almost think that if we'd carried on, we'd be stepping into new territory, going into the late 1920s.

"It's good to end on a high note and before there were real changes beginning to occur, politically and socially."

Downton Abbey is back for a sixth and final series tonight with a 90-minute episode set in 1925, featuring talk of a wedding, intrigue, and uncertainty over the future of the estate.