Downton Abbey actress says the show cannot continue forever

The Downton Abbey actress Penelope Wilton admitted that despite its success, the show cannot continue forever.

The 67-year-old star plays Isobel Crawley in the period drama which is now in its fourth series.

Asked whether her character or the drama could continue indefinitely, Penelope told Radio Times: “I doubt it. I don’t think anything can go on and on. Everyone would be bored stiff with it.”

Chatting about the cast which includes Dame Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville, as well as guest stars Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Shirley MacLaine, Wilton said that all got on well.

She said: “We have a very close relationship, all of us, because we have worked over four years together.

“We’ve got to know each other very well professionally, so we do interact very well.”

Penelope added: “It is like being in a (theatre) company and all the better for it probably because you can talk in shorthand, as it were, and do more of the acting.”

Downton is filmed from February to August, but Penelope said it went by quickly as the whole cause love Bananagrams word game.

She said: “We play a lot of Bananagrams… We do very short scenes so we come in and out. We don’t get bored with one another. It is the closest thing in television to being an ensemble in theatre.”

Meanwhile, Anna Buring, who played maid Edna, has admitted she is not sure if her character will be back in the show.

She said: “I don’t know, but never say never with Downton. I was such a massive fan of the show that sitting down at the kitchen table opposite Mrs Hughes and Carson was surreal.”

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