Fay Ripley: 'I'd love a role in Downton'

Fay Ripley: 'I'd love a role in Downton'
Fay Ripley: 'I'd love a role in Downton' (Image credit: PA)

Fay Ripley has revealed she would love a role in Downton Abbey - provided she didn't have to play a maid. The Cold Feet actress is a dab hand in the kitchen and has an award-winning cookery book to her name, but insisted she'd stay well out of the servants' quarters if she landed a part in the hit period drama. She confessed: "I want to be in Downton Abbey! But I don't want to be a maid. I want to be upstairs doing something lovely and glamorous. "I think the next series is set in the Twenties and I do not look good in a Flapper dress, so I might have to wait for the series after that." Fay, who is back with a second series of the cookery show Perfect..., is married to fellow actor Daniel Lapaine - best known for playing the groom in Muriel's Wedding. "I still love the film; I've always loved it. It's brilliant and it definitely stands the test of time," Fay said. "(Daniel) looks so different now. When I watch it I just scream with laughter." Fay Ripley narrates Perfect... which is exclusive to Good Food, Monday to Wednesday at 7pm from tonight (January 16).

Patrick McLennan

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.