American star Elizabeth McGovern has admitted no one was interested in her other life as a singer until Downton Abbey became a global hit.
Yet even the success of ITV’s country house drama in which she plays Lady Cora has failed to dent her privacy or change her domestic routine.
McGovern, the lead singer and songwriter with Sadie and the Hotheads, said she was conscious of the public fascination with Downton but said: “I don’t knock up against it in my personal life.
“I feel it obviously in things like people taking an interest in my music — that definitely hasn’t happened before.
"But I go to Sainsbury’s and I don’t see any difference. Either that or it’s just such an imaginative leap to see the woman scooping up her Yorkshire terrier poo as that character Cora.”
She started the band about seven years ago with Sadie as an alter ego to provide confidence. Their second album, How Not To Lose Things, was released this week and a string of London gigs starts at The Troubadour club in Earl’s Court on Tuesday.
McGovern, 51, who lives in west London with her husband, film director Simon Curtis, and their two children, said the album was “about the miracle of the mundane — the relatively peaceful life of a middle-aged woman. I would put myself into that category.
"It’s not out-there tragedy and heartbreak, it’s more the day to day.”
Fellow Downton star Michelle Dockery has joined the Hotheads on stage and other cast members also perform.
Asked about guest appearances at the gigs, McGovern said: “Never say never.”
