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Dame Maggie Smith was often open about her lack of time or interest in watching her performance as the Dowager Countess of Grantham in ITV’s hit period drama, Downton Abbey.

Smith, who died peacefully in hospital early on Friday (Sunday 27), aged 89, starred as Violet Crawley in every episode of the popular six-season show about the aristocratic family and their domestic servants in the early 20th century.

She later reprised her role in the two movie spin-offs: Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022), alongside co-stars Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael and Elizabeth McGovern.

Even during her time on the series, she wasn’t afraid of admitting in several interviews that she had never watched the show.

In 2013, months after the series aired its third season, Smith told 60 Minutes presenter Steve Kroft that she had “never watched it,” confessing that she would find it too frustrating to watch her performance and nitpick over how she could have done things differently.

“I will look at it when it’s all over, maybe, because it’s frustrating,” she said at the time. “I always see things that I would like to do differently, and think, ‘Why in the name of God did I do that?’”

Following the show’s conclusion, she expressed relief that it had come to an end.

“I really am [relieved],” Smith said on an October 2015 episode of The Graham Norton Show. “Because, honestly, by the time we finished, [Crawley] must’ve been 110. I couldn’t go on and on. I couldn’t; it just didn’t make sense.”

In the years after the show’s finale, she revealed that she had been gifted a Downton Abbey box set but still hadn’t gotten around to watching it.

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“I haven’t got time,” she joked to actors Joan Plowright, Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins in their 2018 documentary Tea with the Dames. “I shall have to hasten otherwise I won’t last long enough to see the wretched thing!”

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Throughout her decades-long stage and screen career, Smith gave life to a host of memorable characters, from Muriel Spark’s passionate Edinburgh girls’ school teacher Jean Brodie, in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and most notably to Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film franchise.

She also appeared in other film hits including Steven Spielberg’s Hook and the Sister Act franchise.

In a statement issued via her publicist, Smith’s two sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, announced her death, saying: “It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith. She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning.”

Remembering Smith as an “intensely private person,” they shared she was surrounded by “friends and family at the end.”

EASTENDERS

Bradley/Stacey/Max: Stacey Slater began an affair with boyfriend Bradley Branning’s dad Max in 2007.

Despite their romps, Stacey still married Bradley, but their deceit came out in an iconic Christmas Day episode that year.

Grant/Sharon/Phil: Heading even further back in Walford history, EastEnders fans were gripped in the 90s as Sharon Watts had a one-night stand with her brother-in-law Phil Mitchell.

Sharon confided in best friend Michelle Fowler – not realising it was caught on tape – and her husband Grant eventually found out and played it in front of everyone at the Queen Vic.

Syed/Amira/Christian: Syed Masood was engaged to Amira before realising he had feelings for another man, Christian, which he confessed to him on his wedding day.

A devout Muslim, Syed refused to admit his true sexuality and went ahead and married Amira anyway, but when they returned, the two men started an affair before being caught in the act by Amira.

CORONATION STREET

Shelley/Peter/Lucy: Peter Barlow took the concept of a love triangle and ran with it in Coronation Street – extending it to bigamy.

He was in a relationship with Shelley Unwin but started dating Lucy Richards, and quickly married her after she fell pregnant with his son, Simon.

But it didn’t stop him also marrying Shelley, but he was eventually caught when Lucy turned up in Weatherfield and the two women confronted him.

Ken/Deidre/Mike: Back in 1982, Deirdre Barlow started sleeping with her husband’s nemesis Mike Baldwin in secret, before confessing all a year later.

When Mike turned up at the marital home, Deirdre was being throttled by her husband who then kicked her out, but years later they reconciled.

Maria/Aidan/Eva: In 2017, Aidan Connor started sleeping with girlfriend Eva Price’s best friend, Maria Connor.

Eva eventually found out and she decided to take revenge by faking a pregnancy, spending his money and planned to confront him on their wedding day.

But she had a change of heart when a remorseful Aidan confessed, and decided to marry him anyway, only for Maria to arrive and expose her fake pregnancy.

EMMERDALE

Ross/Debbie/Pete: Debbie Dingle found herself torn between two brothers, Ross and Pete Barton in 2015 in Emmerdale.

She eventually decided to marry Pete but yet again, a soap wedding day was ruined when the groom learned of his bride’s betrayal via a recording played at the wedding.

Chrissie/Robert/Aaron: Robert Sugden was married to Chrissie White and all seemed well – until he began a steamy affair with Aaron Dingle.

Robert’s ex Katie Sugden almost exposed the affair – but fell to her death before she had the chance.

However, a guilty Aaron eventually cracked and told Chrissie about the affair – after which she announced it to the whole pub.

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The controversy surrounding MrBeast’s new game show Beast Games is contiuing, with staff who worked on the show calling for the YouTuber’s team to be “blacklisted”.

MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson is the biggest YouTuber in the world but is facing increased scrutiny for the upcoming series, reportedly the largest reality show in history, which has been produced for Amazon Prime.

Earlier this month, a class action lawsuit was filed against him by contestants on the show claiming they were subjected to “chronic mistreatment” and sexual harassment.

Now a lengthy report from Las Vegas 3 News, says that staff who worked on the show have called it “beyond embarrassing” and that it was the most “unprofessional” production they had ever worked on.

One production worker Rick, who worked as a contestant wrangler for the show said that communication on set was “terrible” which caused a number of problems, including with the medics who struggled to monitor what medication was required for various contestants.

The report claims that contestants were not allowed to bring any belongings, including medication, with them into Allegiant Stadium, where 2000 contestants were based for a preliminary qualifying ‘episode’ for the show intended for YouTube.

The majority of contestants were staying at the Rio and Luxor casinos where the production medics were also based but they had “no idea that [some contestants] were at other casinos”. Those contestants had their items collected by production staff that promised to deliver them to the “appropriate department”.

A medic named Mona claims “their stuff was supposed to be turned into us and never was” and that “everything was on the fly. We didn’t have a real understanding of what they expected, or even if they knew what they were expecting. I don’t think that it was planned out because all the information was not given.”

Another contestant wrangler, Kara, who worked at Allegiant Stadium between 18-21 July, said there was also a huge sanitary issue with the portable toilets used on set.

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She claims that she only saw the portable toilets emptied once during the four days on set which resulted in overflowing. Kara added on the third day: “We had a guy come up to us with his sleeping bag, and his sleeping bag was covered in excrement.”

Kara also said that an unnamed contestant wrangler was threatened with “termination” after they refused to clean up the mess, despite not being given the proper equipment to deal with human waste.

“That’s a major OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] violation. You don’t ask people to clean porta potties like that”, she added.

A third contestant wrangler, Hannah, who was in charge of guiding and coordinating contestants said that she felt “unprofessional” after she was left without any call sheets and that she “should have had more protocols to help me [do my job]”.

She also claims that one contestant had a seizure and “they just left him there” with the incident only being brought to their attention an hour later with the community ambulance medical team then treating the patient.

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In August, The New York Times reported that competitors now say they have not received adequate food or medical care.

“We signed up for the show, but we didn’t sign up for not being fed or watered or treated like human beings,” one contestant told The Times on the condition of anonymity, as they had signed a non-disclosure agreement.

One meal, described to The Times by several different contestants, consisted of a small portion of cold oatmeal, a few pieces of raw vegetables and a single hard-boiled egg.

MrBeast has been contacted for comment.