Dame Kiri to play real opera singer in Downton Abbey

Opera legend Dame Kiri te Kanawa revealed that she is playing real-life Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba in Downton Abbey.

Dame Kiri is the first actor to play a real person in the hit ITV series.

At the launch of the fourth series of Downton Abbey in London today, Dame Kiri told TV Times: "I was trying to stay true to the character because, as Julian [Fellowes, Downton creator] says, she's the one true living character to have appeared in the series."

Dame Kiri, 69, revealed she extensively researched Dame Nellia, who died in 1931. "I was very interested in her anyway. I reseearched how much she earned in a year. Her wage in one year was about £3million in today's money."

Dame Kiri caused a surprise at the Downton launch when she performed the two arias she sings in the series.

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.