Downton Abbey producer Gareth Neame found it “terribly easy” to convince Maggie Smith to have her character killed off.

The 89-year-old actress played formidable matriarch Violet Crawley in the popular TV series and two subsequent movie adaptations.

The 2022 film Downton Abbey: A New Era saw the Dowager of Grantham pass away from a terminal illness, and Smith was seemingly at peace with her departure from the period drama.

“This was a terribly easy one, because she used to find the whole thing so draining at times,” Neame explained, according to the Daily Mail. “Every year, when another series would come round, she’d say: ‘Oh can’t you just kill me off?'”

He added: “So when we eventually did, I think part of her might have been quite relieved.”

Neame also revealed why the beloved series eventually moved to the big screen.

“We’d spend a third to half a year in production,” he explained. “I knew that wasn’t going to be sustainable for ever. The actors wanted to do other things.”

Work is currently underway on a third Downton Abbey movie after filming began in Yorkshire in June.

Stars including Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Joanne Froggatt, Dominic West and Robert James-Collier have all reprised their roles.

Joely Richardson and House of the Dragon star Simon Russell Beale are among the new additions to the cast.

The latest instalment is scheduled for release on 12 September.

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