Michelle Dockery interview: 'Downton may not be over quite yet'

“I was just stunned that they had seen it and they took a leap of faith with me,” she says. “I convinced them I could do an American accent and I said a few things to them over the phone in the accent, but I had some coaching too.”

In the flesh, the actress, who grew up in Romford, still has traces of an Essex accent. She is friendly and refreshingly down-to-earth and admits the fame thrust upon her by Downton took time to get used to.

“I’m no longer anonymous but it comes with the territory,” she says. “Downton Abbey was something that surprised us all and was a huge springboard into America for many of us, which has obviously led to opportunities like this.” (Besides Dockery, Dan Stevens and Lily James, who played Lady Rose, are also much in demand stateside.)

New Netflix Western

Dockery, who is wearing a grey summer dress patterned with brightly coloured flowers, has actually just flown in from Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she has been filming a Western series for Netflix called Godless, alongside Jack O’Connell and Jeff Daniels.

It is another vastly different role to that of Lady Mary and provides another temporary home for Dockery, who previously spent four months in Wilmington, North Carolina, filming Good Behaviour.