Downton Abbey star Jim Carter says fans might have to be patient when it comes to his character's love life.

Viewers saw his alter ego Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes, played by Phyllis Logan, holding hands and paddling in the sea together in the Christmas special.

But Jim told Digital Spy: "[Writer] Julian Fellowes is a big tease.

"You're all hoping that having a paddle together is going to lead to more things. It proceeds at a stately pace, we can say no more. It doesn't gallop ahead, but it's always lurking in the background."

Asked what he'd like to see more of in the next series of the ITV drama, the actor said: "The day-to-day life. What do they do with a day off? Do they get a day off, and what do they do with it?

"Life looks very comfy, but it would have been a funny life, wouldn't it? Devoted to these people upstairs and utterly dependent on them."

Downton Abbey returns for its fifth series on September 21, with some of the servants welcoming the news that they now have a Labour prime minister.

But butler Carson and members of the family, including Hugh Bonneville's Earl of Grantham, worry that their world is about to change.