Since graduating from London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the early 1970s, Lesley Nicol has been a fixture in the British drama and comedy scene. But before her foray into film and television, she was well known as a stage actress, appearing in numerous musicals and plays on the London stage.

Three seasons into Downton Abbey, Nicol describes an enjoyable new storyline for her character, Mrs. Patmore. "You see Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Patmore more in a relationship than they have been before. They started a bit at loggerheads and yet she becomes her mate really. To have scenes with somebody of a similar age is different, yes. It is nice to play. That’s what is lovely about Julian [Fellowes]’s writing. He recognizes that people are more than one thing and he develops them, gives them lots of layers, like we all have."

Nicol herself recently had layers of her own character revealed – she was shot for German Vogue by celebrated fashion photographer Bruce Weber, who identified his favorite Downton Abbey character as Mrs. Patmore!