The death of a beloved TV character can feel like a dagger to the heart. We share the pain of those they leave behind, who must soldier on without them, while their passing also marks the end of an era for us, their loyal viewers.

These characters brought us comfort, humour and joy – and we feel their absence keenly.

But which TV death was the most heartbreaking of them all?

We put that question to Radio Times followers on Facebook and received more than 4,000 comments.

So, which exit left the biggest impression? Read on to find out.

9. Nana – The Royle Family

"The greatest hour of television ever made," said one reader. "The scene where Barbara brushes Nana's hair gets me every time."

"I ugly cry every time," said another. "So well done. I think The Queen of Sheba was their absolute best."

When Norma – better known as Nana – is found unresponsive in her bed, she's rushed to hospital by her family, where she dies peacefully, surrounded by those most important to her.

"I love that episode," said ' Deputy Previews Editor . "When Barbara is styling Nana's hair, she's standing behind her and it's almost like mother and daughter have swapped places. Barbara is now caring for her mother – and it comes to us all, doesn't it? That circle of life thing."

"Liz Smith [who played Nana], she was just perfection," he added.

8. Compo – Last of the Summer Wine

"Peter Sallis [who played Clegg] described the episodes depicting Compo's death and funeral as both heartrending and hilarious,” recalled one reader.

"Agreed," said another. "They knew [actor Bill Owen] was dying [in real life], and they wrote him out beautifully. I fell in love with Clegg in those episodes."

Owen became ill while filming a Last of the Summer Wine millennium special but insisted on finishing the shoot. He was later diagnosed with pancreatic and bowel cancer and died in 1999, aged 85.

In the series, Compo died of a heart attack – but he did so with a grin on his face after catching sight of Nora Batty in her chorus-girl costume.

7. Lady Sybil – Downton Abbey

"I was shouting at the telly," said one reader. "It was really sad."

"It wrecked me," said another.

Lady Sybil died from complications during childbirth – a tragic end that was witnessed by her family.

"At the time it was very shocking because you didn't expect the Crawley sisters to be rent asunder in the way that they were," said . "It was a real surprise and I remember people genuinely being quite shocked that that turn of events had happened."

He went on to draw comparisons between Downton Abbey and British soaps: "Downton Abbey was almost the closest we've come to a period soap opera in the way it would treat character exits.

"I think [Downton's creator] Julian Fellowes was a massive fan of Coronation Street and he employed some of those storytelling devices on Downton."

6. George O'Malley – Grey's Anatomy

George O'Malley's demise was described as "traumatising" by one reader.

"My daughter and I watched it just before my nephew's 30th birthday party. We were totally traumatised for the rest of the day and didn't enjoy the party at all!" said another.

In an act of pure selflessness, George jumped in front of a bus to save a woman's life and was later pronounced brain dead. But he lived on through the organs he donated to those in need.

"His colleagues didn't even recognise him when he was on the operating table," he added, referencing the trauma George had sustained. It was only when he traced "007" on Meredith's palm that she realised it was him.

recalled reviewing that particular episode for . "I had to go to the gents to compose myself for fear of losing my cool in the office... Grey's is so emotionally manipulative at times,” he laughed.

"And there's always emotional indie guitar music playing in the background," added . "They definitely know how to devastate people."

5. Blackadder Goes Forth

"I remember watching it with my dad as a teen when it first came out and just sitting there in silence afterwards," said one reader.

"I still cry no matter how many times I watch it," said another, with one adding: "Because it was true for so many young men of that generation."

Captain Edmund Blackadder, along with his men, went "over the top", as they say, racing towards the barbed wire and into 'no man's land', where they met their inevitable and utterly heartbreaking end.

"I think it resonated with people because it was the instance where all of Blackadder's scheming and cunning kind of fell away and he was just left as this ordinary guy who had to go over the top with the rest of his men," said .

"Everybody remembers that moment where they emerged over the top. It slowed down and the cameras bled into a field of poppies."

recalled the "visually memorable" nature of that transition. "It's very heavily studied now in the national curriculum, around World War I and how they handled that transition from such a comedic, farcical tone into that really tragic ending."

also thought it was interesting "in the way that hierarchy played itself out in the plot line as well", adding: "Captain Darling thought he was going to escape that fate, but he ended up having to stand alongside them and face the gunfire as well. The only person who got away with it was General Melchett. So it felt like it was making a bit of a social comment there, that there is an arbitrary nature to who gets caught up in warfare.

"But at the same time, some people did escape that fate."

4. Dr Mark Greene – ER

One reader described Dr Mark Greene as "the heart of ER". "Though it was great afterwards and I watched every episode until the end, it never was quite the same," they added.

Usually the one treating patients, Dr Mark Greene tragically died in season 8 after his brain tumour returned following surgery. He spent his final moments with his daughter in Hawaii, where he suffered a seizure and died in his sleep.

"I started watching ER at university. I was with my girlfriend at the time and by the time it ended, we were married and we had one child, so it lasted that long – it was 15 years,” said . "But Mark Greene left at the midway point. Dr Carter received a fax at the hospital and read it out: Mark had died. And then it was only a couple of weeks later that we actually saw his final scenes play out."

Echoing what the aforementioned reader said, added: "I really felt that once actor Anthony Edwards left, the moral core of the show departed with him. He made that speech in the very first episode about how it was important to set the tone in the department and when he died, it felt like that era had passed with him.

“And although it did continue for many seasons afterwards, I don't think it ever quite recovered from the exit of Dr Greene because he was also quite fallible. He was a hero, but he made mistakes... that made him feel like a fully-fledged person, not just a character in a white coat in a medical drama."

concurred, describing his absence as a "big hole" that "wasn't entirely filled".

"I mean, they tried. There were a lot of characters that came after. But they didn't have quite the same gravitas."

3. Molly Jones – A Country Practice

"I remember that well. Molly's death was dreadful," said one reader. Another described it as "heartbreaking".

Molly Jones, from Australian soap opera A Country Practice, died of leukaemia. At the time of her death, she was lying on her sofa in her garden while watching her husband Brendan, played by Shane Withington whom actress Anne Tenney went on to marry in real life ­– play with their on-screen daughter Chloe.

"It wasn't a snap, sudden death," recalled . "It showed her health gradually failing over a number of weeks. So it wasn't particularly melodramatic. It was a very natural way of depicting someone's demise. And it almost kind of happened off camera, if you will."

Speaking about soap operas specifically and the relationships viewers develop with certain personalities, continued: "You've followed these characters over years and sometimes decades. You kind of get to know them and see them more often than maybe members of your own extended family.

"So they become almost like a part of your own clan and when they depart in the manner that Molly did, then it has a big impact."

added: "They're part of the pop culture fabric, those characters who you expect to always be around. They're consistent.

"And especially with that story as well, it's not a shock. It really took its time, which adds even more emotion to it."

2. Lt Colonel Henry Blake – M*A*S*H

"I have watched that episode so many times and it's still like a kick in the gut," said one reader.

"The original unexpected death," added another, while one person described it as "a total shock, crushing".

Colonel Henry Blake died in the season 3 finale when the plane carrying him home to the United States was shot down over the Sea of Japan.

"The poignancy with Henry Blake was... the one thing he wanted to do was go home," said . "And in that final episode of his, he'd actually been discharged, so everybody had had this get-together to bid him farewell and you thought that was going to be the end of it.

"But it defied expectations when you found out that his character had actually died."

went on to say that while M*A*S*H's "raison d’être was to show almost nameless soldiers being brought in for treatment in the hospital, all the characters were doctors and medics, so it was those people that we got to know".

And through them, the writing took aim at the "arbitrariness of war".

"The caregivers weren't removed completely from the conflict because ultimately Henry Blake got caught up in it," he added. "It was a really horrible end just at the moment where you thought that he got what he wanted."

1. Inspector Morse – Inspector Morse

"I cry every time I watch it," said one reader, while another added: "That was heartrending... and I was only 13."

The final episode of ITV crime drama Inspector Morse fittingly concluded with the emotional departure of its titular detective, played by John Thaw, who died in hospital after suffering a heart attack exacerbated by his heavy drinking. It was a sad end to a somewhat sad life.

But there was one final moment of comfort. Morse's right-hand man, Inspector Lewis, was by his side when he passed over, kissing Morse on the forehead and uttering the words, "Goodnight, sir" – a small gesture that offered viewers some solace, at least.

"What people loved about Morse was that he personified the loneliness in everybody," said . "Morse was never really at home anywhere. He was intellectual, but he never graduated from Oxford. He was an ill fit in the police force because everybody thought he was rather clever. He was this misfit wherever he went, and he ended up dying quite lonely, really.

"But when he died, the only person really there to mourn his passing was the very man who he'd belittled all those years. And I think that is why it still lives on all these years later. Those repeats on ITV – it's probably one of its most bankable shows still to this day."

The death of Morse was made doubly poignant by the fact that Thaw had been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and died himself a few years after filming that episode.

"It lent a real-life element where actor and character ended up kind of blending in the public imagination," added . "And then ITV had the prequel series, Endeavour, and there was that scene where you saw Shaun Evans as the young Morse look in the rear view mirror of his car and see John Thaw's eyes staring back at him.

"I thought that was a very neat way of passing the torch from one to the other."

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