From Line of Duty to #JusticeforBarb: TV’s obsession with shock early deaths

Be it Jed Mercurio swiftly bumping off his star signings, Game of Thrones beheading Sean Bean or Stranger Things vanishing a young actor into the Upside Down, nobody is safe

It was Lisa Faulkner's deep-fried face that started it. Almost 20 years ago, swishy new BBC spy drama Spooks seized viewers by the lapels - and saw the Broadcasting Standards Commission inundated with complaints - in only its second episode when Thames House trainee Helen Flynn (played by Faulkner) volunteered for a risky undercover mission, but found herself getting served up with salt and vinegar.

Brookside alumnus and lads' mag favourite Faulkner had just completed a stint on Holby City. Among a cast of newcomers, hers was the biggest name. Viewers assumed she would be a key player in the show taglined It's MI5, not 9 to 5". Hence it was a jaw-dropper in spring 2002 when her character infiltrated an extremist group but got rumbled and gruesomely murdered.