Michelle Dockery

Michelle Dockery

The cast of 'Downton Abbey' have become hooked on playing a Scrabble-like game.

Newcomer Tom Cullen - who is to play Lord Anthony Gillingham in the ITV period drama - has inflicted some more fun into his castmates' downtime in between takes by introducing word game Bananagrams into their lives.

Michelle Dockery - who plays Lady Mary Crawley - told The Sun newspaper: "Tom has joined as Lord Gillingham and has brought in Bananagrams. It is like Scrabble but there is no board and you have to lose all of the letters in the pile."

While the brunette beauty is enjoying the new entertainment on set, she is finding it tough to beat her 78-year-old co-star Dame Maggie Smith (Violet Crawley) and Laura Carmichael (Lady Edith Crawley).

Michelle added: "Maggie and Laura Carmichael are really good. They usually win. Their vocabulary is bigger than mine I guess."

The 31-year-old star recently admitted she will feel "at a loss" when 'Downton' comes to an end because she loves starring in the show so much.

She said: "There's a part of me that doesn't want it to end, because I love it so much... and once it's all over, I'm sure there will be a period when I feel slightly at a loss.

"It's like this love affair that I have with my job."