Scarborough: Downton Abbey actress honoured in home town

Downton Abbey star, Dame Penelope Wilton, is to receive an honorary doctorate later, for more than 50-years of contribution to drama and the arts.

She is to be honoured by Coventry University in Scarborough, where she was born and where the institution has a campus.

Dame Penelope has played Isobel Crawley from the start of the drama series.

Professor John Latham, from Coventry University said she had "entertained the nation and inspired others".

"She has also used her profile to help a number of good causes and we are proud to honour an individual as highly respected as Penelope," he added.

Dame Penelope, 76, said: "I feel very honoured to be receiving this award from Coventry University and particularly proud to be presented it in Scarborough.

"Being able to develop my passion for acting into a successful career, working with remarkable people along the way, is something I feel very fortunate about and I have been lucky enough to use my profile to help some amazing charities."

Highclere Castle in Hampshire was the main filming location for Downton Abbey

Dame Penelope, 76, is a patron of Halifax Square Chapel Arts Centre and an ambassador for educational charity Children and the Arts, who ran a project in Halifax to encourage students to engage with poetry.

She is also a patron of York-based charity Kyra, which helps women recover from domestic abuse or mental illness and is fundraising for them to move into a larger premises.

In 2004 she was made an OBE for her services to acting before being made a DBE in 2016.

Dame Penelope also acted in The Norman Conquests by Alan Ayckbourn which ran in London and on Broadway.

The trilogy of plays was first performed at Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre, linked to the university's acting course in the town.