Michelle Dockery is famous for playing razor-sharp Lady Mary Crawley in Downton Abbey, but she plays a very different character in the new period drama This Town.
She portrays the rather volatile character Estella, who begins the series isolated from her loved ones and struggling with alcoholism. We’re quite sure that wouldn’t go down well in Downton!
Michelle’s career is currently rocketing, despite a difficult few years in her personal life. Her fiancé tragically died of cancer, but she has since found love again with her new partner.
Here’s everything you need to know about Michelle Dockery, her partner, and her new role in This Town.
Who plays Estella in This Town?
Michelle Dockery plays troubled Estella in This Town. Estella is a volatile character who begins the series isolated from her loved ones and struggling with alcoholism.
Michelle describes as “a kind of an outsider at the beginning”. Adding: “She’s been exiled from the estate for talking too much.”
This Town is the latest TV series from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it’s also set in Birmingham, but this time 1981. We’re told it’s a “city on edge”, with “a music scene set to explode and a fight to choose your own future”.
A synopsis tell us the series follows young people “drawn into the ska and two-tone scene in the Midlands during the early 1980s”.
The story begins in 1981, as Birmingham is thrown into political and social unrest. The lead character of Dante wanders through a riot and finds himself in a new world that is dangerous, but also full of opportunity.
What is Michelle Dockery famous for?
Michelle Dockery is most famous for playing Lady Mary Crawley in the TV series Downton Abbey, from 2010 to 2015. The role earned her a clutch of awards and nominations.
She reprised the role for several feature films, with another on the way.
Michelle has been on our screens ever since 2005, when she played Betty in the raunchy book adaptation of Fingersmith. She subsequently popped up in episodes of Dalziel and Pascoe, Heartbeat, Waking the Dead, and Cranford, before winning the role in Downton.
Other notable roles include Alice Fletcher in Godless, Letty Raines in Good Behaviour, and Laurie Barber in Defending Jacob, opposite Chris Evans.
In 2022, she played steely criminal barrister Kate Woodcraft in Anatomy of a Scandal on Netflix.
Her big screen credits include Self/Less with Ryan Reynolds, and The Gentleman with Matthew McConaughey. Michelle can sing too. She’s a trained singer and she and Downton co-star Michael C Fox signed a deal with Decca records.
Who is the partner of Michelle Dockery?
Michelle Dockery’s partner John Dineen tragically died in 2015 after a battle with cancer.
Her first fiancé, John Dineen, died aged 34, after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. At the time of his death, she said: “I don’t have the vocabulary to describe what it felt like. And what it still feels like.
“I never lost hope. No. I’m not exaggerating when I say that John did not complain once, never, not once, and that gave us strength. It’s what keeps you going, that positivity. To never lose that hope for a miracle. I couldn’t have done it any other way,” she added.
Michelle fell for John, then a public relations director at FTI Consulting in London, after being introduced by her Downton c0-star Allen Leech.
Is she married?
Michelle found love again with Jasper Waller-Bridge. And, if you think the name is familiar, he’s the brother of Fleabag actress Phoebe.
The Downton Abbey announced their engagement in The Times on January 2022. It marked three years since the ITV actress first met Jasper, who was 34 at the time. The couple are believed to have become a couple through friends in 2019, four years after the tragic death of her first fiancé.
They made their first-ever public appearance together at the Rome Film Festival that year.
The newspaper announcement read: “The engagement is announced between Jasper, son of Michael Waller-Bridge of King’s Lynn, Norfolk, and Teresa Waller-Bridge of Battersea, London, and Michelle Dockery, younger daughter of Michael and Lorraine Dockery of Gidea Park, Essex.”
Both Jasper and Michael are in the same industry. Jasper is a film and TV producer. He was also previously the manager of One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson.
The pair married in September 2023 at St Nicholas’ Church in Chiswick, West London. Of course, Jasper’s sister Phoebe was in attendance, as were the likes of Imelda Staunton, James Norton and Lesley Manville.
The cast of Downton Abbey were also present, including creator Julian Fellows, Hugh Bonneville, Lily James, Allen Leech, and Joanne Froggatt.
How old is Michelle Dockery? Where is she from?
Michelle Suzanne Dockery was born on December 15, 1981, in London.
She is currently 42 years of age.
Despite her posh role in Downton, Michelle is from humble stock. She’s the daughter of a care home assistant from Stepney, and a surveyor from Ireland. She mostly grew up in Romford, Essex.
Read more: This Town first look: Everything we know about new drama from Peaky Blinders creator
Michelle Dockery stars in This Town, which starts on Easter Sunday, 2024, at 9pm on BBC One.
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