Jason's goodbye to mum

Isaacs and his mother Linda

Alex Green

Jason Isaacs has revealed he was able to be with his mother in her final moments due to a chance disruption in his filming schedule.

The Harry Potter star's mother Linda died in 2014 in Israel, where she had moved from the UK some years before, of complications related to cancer and dementia.

He told the Marie Curie podcast that by chance he had been filming a television series in the country, but production was halted after rockets were fired across the border with the Gaza Strip.

It meant Isaacs (57) and his brothers were able to be with her before she died.

Speaking to podcast host and grief expert Jason Davidson, he said: "Bombs started going off in Israel, rockets started coming across from Gaza.

"This was 2014, and the production I was shooting obviously shut down. The insurers shut it down.

"They sent everyone home and I got to stay just at the moment my mum moved into this place.

Fading

"She was there for months, fading away, not quite under- standing why she wasn't getting better but, you know, continually talking to doctors and stuff.

"Everybody around knew, not because we had a diagnosis, but because it was clear she was fading.

"I got to be with her there, and various brothers flew in at various stages, and my wife and kids flew out for a little bit, until she died and we buried her."