No Offence fans devastated over death of major character in series opener

Channel 4 cop drama No Offence has devastated viewers by killing off a major character in the opening scene of its third series.

**Warning: this article contains spoilers for No Offence series 3 episode 1**

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In the first few minutes of the new series, which debuted on Thursday night, fans of the show were forced to say goodbye to Alexandra Roach’s beloved DS Joy Freers.

Joy died in the line of duty during a dramatic assassination attempt at Manchester’s mayoral hustings – she was shot by the gunman as he fled the scene and later died on the way to hospital.

And it's fair to say viewers were not feeling very joyful about it...

So why did Joy have to die? Writer Paul Abbott told RadioTimes.com in a recent interview: “Essentially it’s because the actress wanted to leave. We decided it was better to kill her than just to let her go off somewhere.”

Fair enough.

Roach thanked the No Offence crew for an "incredible few years".

From Bodyguard (contains more spoilers) to No Offence, it’s been a bloody week in drama.