Informer star Sunetra Sarker crushed by heartbreaking finale: There were tears in my eyes

Warning: Article contains spoilers for the final episode of Informer

BBCs gripping crime drama Informer reached a tragic conclusion as the identity of the shooter was revealed.

A shooting in a London cafe was teased at the start of the series with the person behind the attack remaining unknown until the finale on Tuesday night.

Despite viewers originally believing a terrorist cell to be responsible, the truth turned out to be much closer to home as it was Razas 14-year-old brother Nasir behind the shooting. After killing five people he then turned the gun on himself.

Star Sunetra Sarker, who played Sadia, a family friend who raised Raza and Nasir after their mum died, said she was stunned when she learned how the show was going to end.

Sarker told Metro.co.uk: When I read the finale, I had to take myself away for a few minutes and process what the enormity is to a mother, who isnt a mother but feels like a mother. Its the most heinous crime you can imagine.

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For me I had to put myself in the shoes of a normal family who get a knock at the door basically, and are told the last thing they would have ever imagined.

We filmed a lot of stuff that didnt get aired for editing reasons, and the scene where we were told by the police, that the son we would never have expected committed this awful terrorist attack.

Obviously there was disbelief, but then there was this speech which we didnt get to show, which was the police explaining “you are gonna have to change your identity, you will become vilified for this one action that happened. Nobody will bury your son at this stage, its that bad”.

And we were just getting this wave of bad of news, and we were just crumbling and I fell to my knees at one point, I was really feeling it.

Imagine the women and men who have had that knock on the door and being told the worst thing. It translates to everybody, and thats what I think Informer does. It breaks down a lot of barriers and the idea that people thinking “those people do that”. But were in it together now.

Why cant British Muslims be on the side of fighting terror?

She added that she was left crushed by the final scene between Sadia and Raza, when she distances herself from Nasir.

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I fought internally with that line, at first, but I also knew that for it to be dramatic we need a moment that would punch you she said.

And it explains that this is what happens when people that you love punch you.

She went on: By the end, I feel like she had to say “he wasnt even my son” as its the only thing she can do to protect herself. She cant survive without denying he was her son.

I believe Sadia had to protect herself because one of the boys is dead and the other is an informant to the police, where does she stand now?

Shes actually not their mother but she felt she was. It crushed me to say those words and there were tears in both of our eyes when we did that take. It felt like a divorce in a way.

She did it to survive. We were told these things by the researchers. You cant even get a job. You are the mother of a terrorist. She had to change her name, and the community would be blaming her as a mother more than the father.

Imagine the knock on effect of what happened to her on a day to day basis, bricks through their window, and some point you become a fugitive of your own life.

She had to say he wasnt even her son because if she went to the inquest she would go right back in to all of it. But she regretted it as soon as she said it.

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Thats real life. There are people out there who have been hurt by the people that they love.

Informer is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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