“

I was in the publicity office watching the live stream of the nominations so I watched it as it happened, which is thrilling. I’m over the moon. 16 nominations, it’s incredible. To be nominated alongside those amazing women, I’m honored, really. This evening we have a cast and crew screening of episode one of the third series at Ealing Studios — I haven’t seen it and I can hardly wait — so we’re all heading down there tonight and I’m sure there’ll be a few bottles of champagne for everyone. And then tomorrow myself and some of the cast will fly to LA to do the TCA press tour, which is perfect timing, really. So we can celebrate there, too. Each year seems to get better. We never could have guessed how huge the show would get. It’s wonderful to play a character over three years and play out her journey. It’s all credit to Julian [Fellowes]. It all starts with the writing. Saturday evening in L.A., Brendan Coyle, Jo Froggatt and Hugh Bonneville, who are also nominated, will be out there as well. So I’m sure we’ll all raise a glass somewhere. In good weather, which we’re all looking forward to, as it’s pretty rainy here.

”