As The Musketeers kicks off its final run tonight, Digital Spy speaks to Athos actor Tom Burke - who revealed his thoughts on the show coming to an end.
Revealing that there "wasn't a clear moment" when the cast found out the show was ending, Burke added: "The moment I cottoned on that that might be a possibility, I think I personally started pushing for the character to go through as big a journey as possible.
"I think a series risks straying into self-parody if you get into a fourth series... sometimes even if you get into a third, because the audience knows how it's going to go.
So I think in that respect, we got everything out of it we could, because I think otherwise it would have to become a very different sort of show."
Series 3 sees Matthew McNulty join the cast as Lucien Grimaud, a money lender and evil criminal.
"... He sees Grimaud on this devastated landscape, in the midst of dust and smoke," Burke said of Athos's reaction to the character, "... and gets quite obsessed by that man as being the embodiment of evil and decay - a particular kind of insidious evil."
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According to Burke, Athos spent series 1 and 2 running away from his past, while series 3 sees him "staring at the future head on".
With Athos's one-time lover Milady (played by Maimie McCoy) returning to the series, Burke confirmed: "Their encounter is quite economical... Just two people in a room realising that whatever they had between them has slipped away."
And his final message to the fans? "I just hope they enjoy it as much as they enjoyed the first two, and I hope they go with it. I think we have prized it open a little, but I think that was the only thing to do to not repeat oneself."
The Musketeers returns tonight at 9.30pm on BBC One.
