Lesley Nicol

I get invited to a lot more glamorous parties since I've been in 'Downton Abbey,' which has made me much more fashion conscious.

I want to have a scene with Maggie Smith.

For years, I've felt that there's an inner cook in me just waiting to be unleashed. But I have to confess I'm having an awful lot of trouble finding her in real life.

In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.

Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.

I generally don't follow domestic news that much aside from how it relates to the stories I'm covering abroad, like what Americans think of the War in Afghanistan.