Mr Selfridge star Lauren Crace has revealed she always knew her character was going to be killed off this series – it was just a matter of how.

Lauren played Doris Grove in the ITV period drama, but met her end in a shock twist in last night’s episode.

Appearing on This Morning, she said: “I knew I was going to die before I started filming this series. At first it was influenza, then die through childbirth, but then they thought, ‘No, just hit her with a truck!’.”

Lauren Crace
Lauren Crace starred in Mr Selfridge (Ian West/PA Archive/Press Association Images)

But she said the dramatic death hadn’t upset her: “I just feel it’s always a bit more exciting to leave on a bit of a bang, than to walk off into the sunset, so I didn’t mind having a dramatic exit.

“Originally I was only booked for the first series and a little bit for the second series, so when they asked me back for the third series I was quite surprised, so to have a few extra episodes was a treat really.”

Lauren also revealed that she had been pregnant for two series of Mr Selfridge but had hidden her bump both times with the clever use of props.

Mr Selfridge
Jeremy Piven takes the lead in Mr Selfridge (ITV)

She explained: “I had my son two weeks after we finished filming the first series, so I spent the entire time holding boxes and hiding behind desks. And then I was pregnant with my twins in the last series, who were born in November and we shot those last scenes in August, so I was pretty big.

“Luckily the 20s style helped because it just sort of skimmed over the bump. It was more of a problem in the first series because it was all about the waist, and I didn’t really have one.”