Interview Downton’s Rob James-Collier

“It’s nice to play nasty and I really love the reaction in the street.”

Downton Abbey bad boy Rob James-Collier admits he’s missing his screen partner in crime.

Siobhan Finneran the show’s meanest maid Miss O’Brien decided to walk away from the smash hit show, leaving Rob, who plays sneaky footman Thomas, stunned.

The pair’s plotting and scheming turned them into villains millions loved to hate.

“She’s the best actress I’ve ever worked with,” former Corrie star Rob told The Sunday Post.

“They wanted her back but she decided not to go.

“I went in with the idea of playing Thomas really over the top, a cocky young lad like Brando really.

“But I had a rehearsal with her when she did absolutely nothing which made her mesmerising and really scary.

“So I copied her doing an inferior male version and she really helped me raise my game.

“I think she’s left behind one of the favourite characters that people really bought into.”

Thomas’s devious ways are back with a vengeance right from the off in the series opener as he takes against the new nanny.

And being a baddie is right up Rob’s street.

“I love it,” he confides. “It’s nice to play nasty and I really love the reaction in the street.

“When you’re doing an intense, evil scene there’s a real buzz among the crew that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

“You saw last year with his sexuality how he alienates himself from people because he can’t be himself.

“It’s nice to see that softer, vulnerable side and explain why he is like that.

“But I do get a fair bit of hassle when I’m out and about the girls in the Post Office give me a bit of stick!”

Rob’s keeping one thing under wraps in the new series his shaved head.

He had his hair cropped for a part in a pal’s small film and a toupee cover-up was required.

“I think it cost about £4,000,” reveals Rob. “It’s real hair and the king of wigs so I think it was money well spent.

“The producers and the writer, Julian Fellowes, are really proud of the platform Downton has given the cast.

“You’ve got Dan Stevens (Matthew) and Jessica Brown Findlay (Sybil) in films now and it’d be foolish not to think the reason for that was Downton.

“So the bosses are trying to encourage it and enhance our careers any way they can.

“It was quite touching that they let me do the film. Mind you, I don’t think they realised how much a wig would cost!”