Anatomy of a Scandal's Michelle Dockery talks Downton Abbey comparisons

"I feel like with every character that I play there are always similarities. There's something that you can take from one and see in the other," she said.

"Kate Woodcroft is as stoic as Lady Mary. And I think if Lady Mary had to put on the robe and the wig, I think she would probably hold her own in a courtroom like Kate Woodcroft."

Anatomy of a Scandal, which is based on Sarah Vaughan's best-selling book of the same name, is a six-part series co-starring Sienna Miller, the wife of a prominent Conservative politician accused of rape.

Meanwhile Kate Woodcroft, QC, specialises in sexual assault crimes, and begins a cut-throat prosecution that threatens to tear Westminster apart.

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“Kate was a really interesting character to play because there's lots of layers to her," Dockery teased.

"She has lots of boundaries, and her personality is quite unreadable. So it was interesting playing someone who even I was discovering as I went along. And what was important for me was playing that slightly closed-off natured person.

"She's quite detached from people, even [in] the relationship that you see that she has with Richard. It suits her that he is unavailable. And I think that is a way of protecting herself because she has been hurt very deeply.

"Part of the performance was playing that stoicism and not letting anybody in. And then of course, as the show goes on, you see [she] begins to unravel, which I think is really interesting," she added.

Additional reporting by Abby Robinson.

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