BRADFORD actress Sophie McShera is used to being below stairs, playing kitchen maid Daisy in Downton Abbey, but in new Disney movie Cinderella she finally has an upstairs role.

Sophie, 29, who went to St Joseph's College in Manningham, plays Drisella, one of Cinderella's evil stepsisters in the blockbuster film, directed by Kenneth Branagh.

The star-studded cast includes Cate Blanchett as the Wicked Stepmother, Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother and Sophie's fellow Downton Abbey cast member Lily James as the heroine, Ella.

Sophie joined the cast on the red carpet for the glittering world premiere of the film at Berlin International Film Festival.

The family film, released next week, draws on Walt Disney's 1950 animated musical film of Cinderella.

Sophie's character and her villainous sibling, played by Holliday Grainger, taunt their stepsister Cinders who is forced to work as a servant, confined to the kitchen below stairs.

A former pupil of St Joseph's College, Manningham, Sophie, 28, has played kitchen maid Daisy Mason since the first series of the period drama, set above and below stairs in a Yorkshire household.

As Downton Abbey's kitchen maid Daisy, Sophie is used to life at the bottom of the servants' hierarchy, often at the receiving end of cook Mrs Patmore's quick temper. But Sophie said she and actress Lesley Nicol, who plays the cook, are good friends off set.

"Even though Mrs Patmore is horrid to Daisy she does love her deep down, and she's very maternal towards her," said Sophie.

"Daisy is first up every morning and her duties include lighting the fires below stairs then sneaking into the family's bedrooms to light their fires. The props master asked if I wanted to carry a basket with pretend logs but I wanted to make it as realistic as possible so I'm carrying heavy props around."

Sophie's career took off when she was a teenager, landing roles in Emmerdale and Waterloo Road before Downton Abbey.

She has been in the popular ITV period drama since the first series, starring alongside Dame Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville. The multi award-winning drama, about the lives of masters and servants in a Yorkshire country house, is a huge hit both sides of the Atlantic.

Earlier this month Sophie met the Duchess of Cambridge when she visited the set of Downton Abbey at Ealing Studios in London.