Julian Fellowes On Matthew's Death: 'I'm Quite Glad' The Way It Worked Out

A few more months of marital bliss may have seemed ideal for Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Matthew (Dan Stevens), but "Downton Abbey" creator Julian Fellowes is glad it's all over.

"Originally I thought we would kill Matthew at the beginning of the new series [Season 4], but the way things worked out, we didn’t have that option,” Fellowes told xfinityTV. “Actually, I am quite glad of it now because being away from it for six months, we don’t have to do funerals and all that. She has had six months to go through the first mourning period."

Stevens himself isn't exactly mourning the loss of his character, who died in a horrible car accident on Christmas Day in the UK, but he is sorry for kicking the bucket on such a celebratory day.

"I am sorry about that! I think what emerged is that it's an unwritten rule that you're not supposed to die on British television on Christmas Day, and that, specifically, was not my doing," Stevens told The Independent. "We didn't see that script until the very last minute, so we didn't know exactly how they were going to do it," he added.

"Downton Abbey" will return to PBS in January 2014.