Actress Rosie appears in Downton Abbey a year after doing Charles Vance rep in Sidmouth

SIDMOUTH fans of the annual Charles Vance Summer Plays Festival, may have spotted a familiar face in Sunday’s first episode of ITV TV’s new series of Downton Abbey.

One of the suffragettes handing out white feathers at a fund-raising concert for the war effort, is played by young actress Rosie Jones, who carried out work experience in Sidmouth last year, playing Poppy Dickey in Rookery Nook, directed by Imogen Vance.

Rosie, who graduated from RADA in 2009, is pictured handing a white feather to second footman William Mason (Thomas Howes).

While scheming first footman, Thomas Barrow, is at the front line at the start of World War One, and wants to get out of the fighting and return to Downton, William is still serving the Crawley family there and is desperate to join up and fight.

Julian Fellowes, author of the popular series, will be visiting Sidmouth to give a talk about his work. While his event has already sold out, Kennaway House is hosting talks by author Rachel Billington tonight, Friday, from 7pm, and biographer Michael Holroyd on Friday, October 7.