Warren Brown speaks out after Strike Back's shocking final season twist

However, in a tragic twist, it was revealed that Mac's new life was actually a hallucination and back in the real world he eventually died of his wounds.

"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," Brown told PA.

"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 just thought the writing was incredible."

Strike Back will wrap up for good in a few weeks' time but Brown insisted he was thrilled with Mac's explosive exit and wasn't disappointed that his character is absent from the final episodes.

"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," he said.

"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."

To ensure that the twist didn't leak, Brown remained on-set for the final weeks' filming – this time stepping behind the camera.

"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," he explained.

"I asked at the beginning, would it be possible to come back for the final block and shadow direct?

"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 at 9pm on Sky One – check out what else is on with our TV Guide