India, Sept. 6 -- British actor Hugh Bonneville, who has long embodied the dignified yet quietly complex Lord Robert Grantham, is excited about reprising the role in the upcoming film Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. For Hugh, revisiting Robert in this final chapter has been a chance to explore the layers that make the Crawley patriarch such a compelling figure.

"The thing that I've always enjoyed about Robert is that as curmudgeonly and conservative in his background as he is, he's a liberal and fair-minded man underneath it," he said, capturing the duality that has defined the character from the very beginning.

This nuance. Hugh said, is especially evident in Robert's relationship with his eldest daughter, Mary, whose personal trials ...