Warren Brown has said he was “made up” with the send-off he received as his character was killed in a shock twist in Sky drama Strike Back.
The actor, who has played Sgt Thomas ‘Mac’ McAllister in the British military intelligence series since 2017, said it was emotional to say goodbye to his character but he was pleased with his dramatic exit midway through the final series.
He told the PA news agency: “Everyone wanted to go out with a bang so inevitably one of the leads might have to go, for impact, so I knew the idea from the beginning.
“But it wasn’t until a few weeks before we started when the scripts were ready that we read it and I thought it was really really good.
“I was with Dan and and Alin (Daniel MacPherson and Alin Sumarwata, his co-stars) and we all read them at my place in Croatia where we shot last year and we were all just blown away by it and there may have been tears.
“I just thought the writing was incredible.”
His final episode is interspersed with flashbacks to Mac’s time as a young solider in Afghanistan, before he joined Section 20 and Brown, who is also well known for his role as DS Justin Ripley in BBC drama Luther, added: “I have been killed off in these shows before, to great effect, so I’m no stranger to that.
“But when I read the script I was like, this is up there with any work I’ve done in terms of script, how hard I had to work.
“Strike Back is undoubtedly the most physically and mentally demanding job I’ve ever had, I’ve loved it, and then to go out this year, in the final season, with those scripts, was an absolute gift.
“Going into the final season you want to give it absolutely everything and I was made up with that send-off and we managed to keep it under wraps so there was quite a bit of shock.”
He continued: “It’s been a huge job for me, this last three years, we have filmed all over the world, we have been to Jordan, Budapest, Malaysia, Croatia and the cast and crew is such an international group and it’s been a life-changing job.
“In particular the three of us who have been on the show for three years, we are all so so close and we all brought so much for free. Yes it was characters saying goodbye but it was also us saying goodbye to each other and saying goodbye to the show so I think that was really useful for everyone to tap into.”
Brown said special measures were taken to keep Mac’s death a secret, meaning he stayed in Croatia for the filming of the last episodes so fans would not be suspicious of why he was not present.
He said: “We are all quite active on social media and the fans are into seeing behind the scenes while we are shooting so obviously if we are all posting, posting, posting and I’m suddenly not posting for the last four episodes they are going to know something.
“So I wanted to be there for the end to say goodbye to the show and to say goodbye to everyone. I would have always made it back for a wrap party but to go one better I asked at the beginning would it be possible to come back for the final block and shadow direct?
“So I did and learned loads and then I was able to be in Croatia and be tweeting and be pictured with all the guys so that helped keep it under wraps.
“Because of the nature of the show, in the final weeks of shooting when things were getting a bit out of hand, I was able to get my hands dirty a little bit and was able to do a little bit of second-unit directing, which was brilliant.”
Strike Back continues on Tuesdays on Sky One.