Downton Abbey's Sarah O'Brien will be seen doing something very unseemly for a lady's maid in the new series - spitting at her former best friend Thomas.
Actress Siobhan Finneran, who plays scheming Sarah, said she loves shooting angry scenes in the ITV1 period drama.
The 46-year-old actress says the highlight of the upcoming third series was "spitting" at her co-star Rob James-Collier during fight scenes.
The storyline will see Sarah at war with her former best friend Thomas (Rob) after she gets her nephew a job as a footman.
Siobhan told The Sun newspaper: "The fact that we are sparring partners is great because we got to do snarly faces at each other.
"That's been the highlight of this series for me. We've enjoyed spitting at each other this year, so to speak."
The Lancashire-born actress also hinted that viewers will get a glimpse of her Sarah's softer side, but is glad the maid has maintained her villain status because it would be too "boring" to play a saintly character.
She explained: "There is a big soft side to O'Brien but we don't see it that often because it would be too scary for her to drop that guard down, I certainly don't want her to become mother Teresa and go and run the local orphanage.
"That would be incredibly boring."
Siobhan joked that her alter-ego has even been likened to 'Star Wars' supervillian Darth Vader because of her sly nature.
She laughed: "They call her Darth Vader on set. She can glide in and out of scenes unseen and unheard - and often does."
