Dan Stevens has revealed that his original ‘Downton Abbey’ death was EVEN WORSE

Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens has described how his character’s death scene was originally going to be much more gruesome.

Matthew Crawley was killed in an offscreen car accident, swerving to avoid another vehicle, just moments after his wife Mary had given birth during the final episode of the hit period drama’s third season.

The feature-length special aired in the UK on Christmas Day in 2012.

The Beauty and the Beast actor has now revealed that Matthew’s death was actually even worse in the original script: “I remember he had a line like: ‘I’ve never been happier in my life.’ And then he stepped off a curb and was hit by a grocery lorry.”

Stevens told the Daily Mirror: “It was too shocking – it was insane. You had people just running out of trailers saying: ‘No way, no way!’ And there was a sort of mass revolt that this was just too much.”

Last year, the actor jokingly apologised to fans “for ruining Christmas in 2012.”

Downton Abbey: The Complete Collection DVD box set is available on Amazon.