Elizabeth McGovern has said it felt like "being a Beatle" when the cast of Downton Abbey arrived to see Dan Stevens's play in New York - and the audience went wild.
Ex-Downton star Stevens, whose character Matthew Crawley died in a car accident in series three, was making his 2012 Broadway debut in The Heiress opposite Jessica Chastain and David Strathairn.
"There was a surreal moment when we were all doing press in New York," said McGovern, who plays Lady Grantham. "A big group of us went to see Dan Stevens in his Broadway show, and the whole group wanted to go to support him.
"There was a whole line in the theatre booked basically for the Downton Abbey cast. So we walked into that audience - who were at that moment in time particularly Downton Abbey fans, because they'd bought tickets to see Dan Stevens - and they were suddenly sitting with the entire cast in one row.
"The kind of hyperventilation of the moment was really extraordinary - and it was at that moment in time when people in America just literally couldn't get more excited about Downton Abbey.
"It felt like being a Beatle or something, just in that one minute of time."
Downton first aired in the US in 2011 on PBS, and was a surprise hit with American audiences.
Series six begins in the UK on Sunday September 20 at 9pm on ITV.
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