Downton Abbey star Elizabeth McGovern's musical homecoming will culminate with a Tv special in the U.S.

The British-based actress is preparing for an upcoming December (14) east coast tour with her band Sadie & the Hotheads and the group's final show in Hartford, Connecticut will be filmed for an upcoming Tv event.

MCGovern's band has yet to make waves in her native America, but she has released three albums in her adopted U.K. and earlier this year (14), the group hit the road in Europe with Mike & the Mechanics.

The actress hopes the Tv special, which will be taped on 14 December (14), will give Sadie & the Hotheads a spark in America, but she does not want the group to get too big too quickly.

She tells Wenn, "I'd like us to be as big as we deserve to be. I work with a lot of good people and they deserve to be recognised, so I'd like us to find a little success in America.

"I think we're just biding our time and waiting for the right way, and we're going to see how things go on this tour and test the waters and see how people respond to the show and take it one step at a time. We like the control of doing everything ourselves... That's a more comfortable way of doing things for us."

Meanwhile, MCGovern's singing skills can be heard on the upcoming Christmas at Downton Abbey compilation, while she and her band have recorded a new version of Christmas classic Little Drummer Boy for another holiday collection, White Christmas.

The album also features tracks by Idina Menzel, Coldplay, Kate Bush and Sinead O'Connor.