Michelle Dockery

Michelle Dockery

Downton Abbey's Lady Mary Crawley "will never move on" from Matthew Crawley's death.

Michelle Dockery doesn't expect her alter-ego to ever be the same again following the shock death of her husband - who was played by Dan Stevens - in a car crash on Christmas Day last year (25.12.12), despite revealing her character spends the ITV period drama's forthcoming fourth series trying to find a new husband.

She told BANG Showbiz: "To begin with she's much in grief but for the full series she's just trying to live with what's happened and move on, but I don't think she'll ever move on. She's recovering, I guess, from what's happened.

"She's encouraged to meet new people because inevitably she does have to look for a husband again because of the position she's in as the heir to Downton.

"There are new potential suitors that arrive throughout the series."

The brunette beauty enjoys playing a grief-stricken Mary in the upcoming series because her character has gone back to having a similar "cold exterior" to how she did when the show first started.

She added: "I feel she's reverted back to the person she was in series one again, through the grief. She has that cold exterior again, which I do like playing. She has a bit of a sting in her tail. It can be more fun to play.

"She can be a bit mean. But this time it's not her being mean it's because she's grieving.

"I was expecting married bliss with Matthew and Mary but it didn't quite turn out like that."