Downton Abbey will end 'while it's still popular'

Downton Abbey will end sooner rather than later while it is still popular, one of its stars has said.

Laura Carmichael who stars as Lady Edith, told Radio Times that creator Julian Fellowes did not want to run the show into the ground and plans to end the period drama while it is still popular with viewers.

The ITV drama is currently enjoying its fifth series with Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, and Dame Maggie Smith back on screen.

"I know it's his intention to write until the point that seems right [to stop]. It won't be on forever," she told the magazine.But the actress then added: "I say that, what do I know? I don't know, I really don't know! But I don't think that's his ambition."

Earlier this year, the show's executive producer Gareth Neame said that Downton would continue after its current, fifth series.Speculation arose when Fellowes remarked that he would not be able to continue writing Downton at the same time as working on his next project - The Gilded Age.

Carmichael also told the magazine that some aspects of playing Lady Mary's dowdy sibling only became clear after the drama first aired."It was really funny opening the newspaper and reading the reviews and going, 'Oh, I'm playing the ugly one' - I hadn't thought about that!," she said.

Carmichael admitted that she was fed up with wearing period costume "because you keep having to be fiddled with and sewn in."They move your necklace and sew it into the neckline or the hem while you're carrying on a conversation," she said."There was this annoying moment in the second series where our corsets were attached to our stockings, which was a nightmare. The undergarments are a lot better for us now."