A leading Downton Abbey character will die in the next series, it has been confirmed.
Executive producer Rebecca Eaton let slip that the departing star is "pretty key in the cast".
She also revealed that one couple will start a family, telling the Orlando Sentinel: "Somebody will be born, and somebody will die."
"Somebody pretty key in the cast [is] unfortunately not going to make it," she teased.
Meanwhile, Eaton admitted that Dowager Countess actress Dame Maggie Smith is a "handful" on the set of the ITV period drama.
"Maggie Smith is a handful, it's true. She's very difficult. She knows her worth, and she's tricky on the set, but she delivers when the time comes," she explained.
Speaking about the arrival of Shirley MacLaine as Lady Grantham's mother Martha Levinson, Eaton added: "There are some wonderful scenes between Maggie and Shirley MacLaine - Shirley MacLaine being ditsy as ever.
"And Maggie barely restraining her sneer in having to deal with this American."
So far, the show's creator Julian Fellowes has killed off Matthew Crawley's fiancée Lavinia Swire (Zoe Boyle) through a flu epidemic in the last series finale.
Downton Abbey is expected to air its third run in September on ITV1.
