Downton Abbey’s Lesley Nicol on Posing for Vogue and Mrs. Patmore’s Upcoming Romance

Lesley Nicol, the actress who plays Downton Abbey’s often-harried cook Mrs. Patmore, said she pestered series creator Julian Fellowes like he was Daisy about giving her character a man. After months of nudging, he relented. “He was probably thinking, Oh, shut up already! I had asked so many times,” she laughed. Nicol even got to shed her apron and gussy up for Sunday’s season-ending Christmas special. “But it won’t turn out how you think,” she warned. Back in December, before she booked a guest role on Once Upon a Time, Vulture sat with Nicol in Los Angeles for a chat about her victory with Fellowes, her new mission to sing on Downton, and the fancy Jaguar she was borrowing from a friend.You recently posed for German Vogue. Yes! People like me don’t get photographed byBruce Weber, so it just seemed completely crazy.