Brendan Coyle, who plays fan favourite Mr. Bates in Downton Abbey, has hinted he may be leaving the show. Coyle was spotted in the series 5 finale when his wife Anna was arrested for the murder of Mr. Green. Mr. Bates though was sure his wife would get off. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Coyle responds to queries about whether he will take the blame for Mr. Green’s murder without confirming his character’s fate: “I can’t go there with that. Everything’s finite. We can’t go on until the 1960s, that would be weird.” Speaking about the harrowing rape storyline his wife Anna faces, Coyle said: “I have to choose my words carefully, as it’s such a dark and tormenting, personal subject. When I first read it, I was shocked. “But we’re a post-watershed drama, and I don’t question the legitimacy of such a storyline as these things happened. We can embrace all aspects of the human existence. It’s not as though there’s no precedent for dark material in the show.” The actor is proud of how the producers handled the storyline, saying: “And we didn’t just do it and move on, like some other plotlines that have not been explored. There are consequences, there’s been a fallout and not just the obvious murder of this guy, and whodunit. “When we come to Anna and Bates, they’re trying to heal in a really interesting way. It’s a marriage of equals. Smug married is not very interesting dramatically but, instead, there’s all this unspoken stuff. She’s been concealing the truth, because she knows what he’s capable of. “Any man would be primal in that situation, they would have those feelings, they would want revenge.” Although Coyle has yet to confirm whether he will be returning for another series, he has hinted that his exit may be in sight: “There may be life after 'Downton Abbey', it won’t be as big as this, but that won’t bother me, that’s not how I quantify success.” Images via ITV