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"Downton Abbey&amp;#039;s Michelle Dockery has played down suggestions that her character Lady Mary Crawley will enter into a relationship with Tom Branson. The actress described the pair&amp;#039;s relationship as &amp;quot;close&amp;quot; but added that she doesn&amp;#039;t see it developing into a romance, Access Hollywood reports.  Mary will be seen mourning the loss of husband Matthew (Dan Stevens) when the popular period drama returns for a fourth series this autumn. Asked about Mary and Branson&amp;#039;s (Allen Leech) relationship, Dockery said: &amp;quot;They are very much friends and he is her brother-in-law, still. I think they become close because of what they&amp;#039;ve both been through. &amp;quot;And also, Mary becomes far more involved in the running of the estate with Tom, so we do have a lot of scenes together. But romantically, I don&amp;#039;t think it&amp;#039;s going anywhere.&amp;quot;  However, Dockery revealed that new character Lord Gillingham may be a potential love interest for Mary. &amp;quot;He is an old family friend who she&amp;#039;s known since the girls were children and they haven&amp;#039;t seen him since she was tiny,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;She&amp;#039;s kind of slowly throughout the series coming back to real life and of course it&amp;#039;s important for her to eventually move on, so he is a potential love interest.&amp;quot; Dockery recently confirmed that the cast have agreed to return for a fifth series, after executive producer Gareth Neame told press that the series won&amp;#039;t be going off air &amp;quot;anytime soon&amp;quot;. Downton Abbey is expected to return to ITV for its fourth series next month and will return to PBS in the US in January 2014. Photo gallery - filming for Downton Abbey&amp;#039;s fourth season:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/downton-abbey/news/a505582/downton-abbeys-michelle-dockery-plays-down-mary-branson-romance/>