Claire Rushbrook has revealed the unexpected way Rivals producers told her that Lady Monica Baddingham was being written out of the hit Disney+ drama.

The actor, 55, whose character was killed in a car crash in the latest episode, admitted she was taken completely by surprise when producers Alex Lamb and Dominic Treadwell-Collins told her Monica’s story was coming to an end.

Rushbrook told Radio Times magazine: “I thought it was just a lovely champagne lunch. Then they walloped me round the head with it.

“They were incredibly gracious but you know when you fall over and very quickly get up and style it out? It felt like that.

“They reassured me about the quality of the death scene and how impactful the storyline would be, so it was hard to feel entirely sad, because there was also great excitement,” she said.

“I have big, different feelings: immense pride at incredible scenes to play, and the tangible reaction from the audience. But it’s absolutely gutting. Gutting and glorious.”

Rushbrook took The Independent behind the scenes of Rivals’ heart-wrenching mid-season finale in an interview published earlier this year.

Before her death, Lady Monica turned up at the house of Lizzie Vereker (Katherine Parkinson), where the two shared a brandy and discussed their philandering husbands in what has been widely hailed as one of the best TV moments of the year.

“I think the biggest challenge in this scene was resisting being seduced into absolutely going for it,” said Rushbrook. “I was really trying to keep at that place where you’re about to burst, but not actually bursting. Because even when Monica is letting things go, she is still very held in.

“It feels facetious to say, but it was sort of like not being allowed to come! I know that’s an incongruous analogy for our darling Monica Baddingham, but that’s how it felt playing that scene. There’s no moment where you can actually have a good cry, or really let it all out. It’s still all: hold it in, hold it in, hold it in.”

Of the reaction to the scene, the actor said: “It is profoundly moving how invested and touched and moved people have been. There’s a fondness for the character that I just didn’t anticipate, although obviously I love Monica so much. And now, people have got this agonising wait for the rest of the series…”