I think some period drama can be quite alienating, but 'Downton' isn't. This is going to sound quite, um, pretentious, but someone said that it's like a soap written by a poet.

I think so often you can come out of drama school and get thrown in the deep end.

We take so many of our freedoms for granted nowadays - I can travel where I like, I can do any job I want - but I think chivalry has been lost a little bit.

I think the success of 'Downton' is partly because there are effectively 18 leading characters, all given equal importance, so it's enormously involving on many levels. But also, it's a new story. It's not like Dickens or Austen, where everyone knows the denouement.

In the early '20s, with the war over, there was a period of celebration, and you can see it in the fashion.

I don't think it was too pretentious.