Brit Happens: Downton Abbey's Mr. Bates, Brendan Coyle, Cusses Out Twitter Follower After Arguing About Margaret Thatcher

Brendan Coyle, aka Downton Abbey's Mr. Bates, tweets the f-bomb after getting into a dust-up with a fan about the former Tory leader

Mr. Bates has always been a little pugnacious. And the same goes for the actor who plays him.

Brendan Coyle, who's portrayed the honorable Crawley family valet for three seasons on PBS' Downton Abbey, used a not-so-nice expletive to tell off a Twitter follower who didn't like what he had to say about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Per The Sun, Downton fan Roberta Knighton took the 48-year-old actor to task for some untoward remarks he made regarding the former PM, telling Coyle the comments were "beneath him." That prompted a sharply worded and unprintable retort on his part.

"Hard to know how to respond to that…but go f--k yourself feels about right," the Emmy-nominated thesp tweeted back, adding, "You have no idea what is beneath me…p.s. go f--k yourself x."

To add insult to injury, Coyle then blocked her from his Twitter page.

For her part, when asked about the online spat, the 53-year-old fan replied that she was taken aback that Coyle was not nearly as mild-mannered as his small-screen alter-ego Mr. Bates might suggest.

"He comes across as utterly sweet and gentle then speaks to people like that. I was shocked," Knighton told the newspaper. 

Coyle, who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Emmy for his role as Bates, is currently in Vietnam filming the movie Noble and has yet to comment on the matter.