Emotional Downton Abbey fans are counting down the days to the start of the last season of the hit British television series, as the period drama's cast told AFP about filming a tearful final scene.

The sixth and final series of the historical drama premieres on British TV screens on September 20, with fans marking the countdown on Twitter.

The series follows the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the early 20th century, and has averaged a weekly audience of 11 million viewers in Britain alone.

In the past five years it has also become "one of the UK's biggest ever drama exports," according to Carnival Films and Britain's ITV channel, which commissioned the series.

The final installment will follow the family towards the end of the 1920s, shortly before the onset of the Great Depression.

Jim Carter, who plays strict butler Mr. Carson, told AFP about that charged moment when they wrapped up the final scene.

"We were in the servants' hall, all the gang, candle lit, a muted scene and they said 'cut.' I started to say a few words on behalf of everybody and... before I knew it... I was a mess! And all the crew, the blokes were all crying - it was a soggy mess!" he said.

Still, fellow cast member Elizabeth McGovern, who plays Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham, expressed the view that it was time for the series to end.

"For me it feels as though these characters have told their stories and it feels right to put them to bed," she said in a recent interview in London.

The final season has nine episodes, with the last one airing on Christmas Day.

AFP