BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) – “Downton Abbey” star Allen Leech has a winning way with accents.
The Irish-born actor employs his native brogue in portraying Tom Branson, the former chauffeur who’s become a landed-family insider on the PBS series that returns Sunday for its fifth season. But moviegoers hear a Scotch lilt from Leech’s World War II codebreaker in “The Imitation Game.”
And, for an audience of one, Leech seals his adroitness with an impish take on the posh English tones of “Downton Abbey” creator and writer Julian Fellowes.
When a nanny was discovered mistreating Tom’s toddler daughter last season, Leech recalls, he asked Fellowes if Tom could punish the wayward servant.
“I don’t think another death on our hands is what we need,” Leech said, mimicking Fellowes – who, despite asking, has yet to hear the canny impression.