Peaky Blinders actress Kate Phillips "forced into a horrendous physical state" for cliffhanger

Her sudden urge to murder her spouse came after she discovered he had battered a Quaker man who she had confided in about her relationship with Arthur.

Whether this really is the end of Linda remains to be seen – and Phillips is keeping quiet – but she has opened up about filming the “horrendous” scene.

“That evening was a night shoot and I’ve never been so cold in my life,” she told Digital Spy. “The place that they chose to shoot that scene was on a bridge and it became this horrendous wind tunnel of ice cold air and I was wearing next to nothing.

“Actually, it's quite helpful when you're forced into such a horrendous physical state – it does bring out a lot of emotions. So it was kind of helpful to the performance, but it was definitely quite a full-on evening, we were all unbelievably cold.”

Phillips added that discovering Linda’s storyline and the twist was a "shocker".

“That's what's cool about the scripts is that you read them like you're a crazed viewer, you're desperate to find out what's next in your story – when your own storyline becomes that cliffhanger at the end of the episode, it's quite intense,” she said. “It was a real shocker to read and it's always cool to be part of the twist, as well.”

Peaky Blinders continues Sundays at 9pm on BBC 1