A lot of fans and even cast members are heartbroken that the period drama "Downton Abbey" will be ending during its sixth season, but for Dame Maggie Smith, 80, the actress who portrayed the spirited Dowager Countess of Grantham, she feels thankful that she lived long enough to have completed the series.
"I'm just surprised that I got to the end because just before this I had done about 10 years with 'Harry Potter' so I felt very old indeed by the time I got to the Dowager. I'm honestly just surprised that I got through and I am still here," she told Express UK in an interview.
The sixth season of "Downton Abbey" will return to the small screen next month and end with their usual Christmas episode. Should they decide to pursue a film version of the series, Smith hopes that she would still be able to carry on with her acting duties.
"It would be fun," she said. "Moan one might but it would be alarming to be completely on your own with nothing to do except lie down."
As much as the actress detests lying down and doing nothing, it seems like that is what she would be doing now that "Downton Abbey" has wrapped up.
"I'm now going to be lying down, I believe, for quite some time. The other thing I will be doing is watching it. I will get the box set and have a good look," she shared.
Show creator Julian Fellowes said that the final season of "Downton Abbey" will leave "open-ended" and so fans will have to formulate their own conclusions.
"I think you leave slightly opened-ended stories because life is open-ended until you die and you can't kill the entire cast, so there's a sense, will this turn out well? Won't it turn out well? We haven't completely plugged everything," he said. "We've shown what the next chunk of everyone's life would be and I think that's right. I think it's satisfactory, I hope it is."
As for the possible TV-movie, the biggest challenge of pursuing it would be to connect it to the series and yet give it a fresh spin, according to Fellowes.
"I think the strange thing, were there to ever be a 'Downton' movie, it strangely has to be just like the TV show and yet at the same time completely different. And I think that would set a lot of really interesting challenges and I think it will be a whole other medium for the audience to enjoy - if and when it ever happens," he said.
