22Lady scary
Downton star Michelle plays wild alcoholic
AS Lady Mary in hit period drama Downton Abbey, Michelle Dockery was an English rose who played by the rules... most of the time.
But nine years after the ITV series ended, the actress is returning to mainstream TV as a rather grittier character.
Michelle plays alcoholic Estella Quinn in This Town, a story about social unrest in the Midlands of the 1980s, set to the soundtrack of two-tone.
Estella has been expelled from Birmingham on the orders of the IRA and her gunman husband.
With her hopes of being a professional singer apparently in tatters, she turns to vodka. But the role, written by the creator of Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight, allows Dockery to show off her fab singing voice.
Viewers of the eight-part BBC1 series are in for a treat when wayward Estella bursts into song in a Catholic church.
Michelle said: “When I read the script, that was the scene that did it. I thought, ‘I’m playing this role’.”
There were other fun elements too. Estella has a huge hairdo, a world apart from Lady Mary’s sleek bob, and Michelle said: “I just loved getting the wig on.”
The actress, 42, said she has things in common with Estella.
She told Radio Times: “I come from Romford in Essex, and I had a similar upbringing. What I love about This Town is the depictions of areas that would have been very grey as bright and beautiful.
“Estella is troubled and she’s been exiled from her community but I relate to her fierce spirit.”
Michelle, who is in a band with Downton co-star Michael Fox (footman Andy Parker), says music acts as an anchor for the characters in This Town.
She explained: “They’re struggling in some way in life, and the music roots them all.”
This Town, which is described as both a high-octane thriller and a family saga, launches on BBC1 on Easter Sunday.