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
![From Line of Duty to #JusticeforBarb: TV’s obsession with shock early deaths](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/186854d30515d5ac859f83dbad5cf729188437b7/0_31_4245_2547/master/4245.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=20f909627e5d1e7b166ba2cbc5b78969)
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.