Colin Firth devastated when real life Railway Man died during production (exclusive)

Colin Firth has revealed he was “devastated” when real life POW Eric Lomax, the man he plays in hard-hitting WWII drama ‘The Railway Man’, died midway through the film’s production in 2012.

Asked if it was a “dark day” for the film’s crew, Firth replied: “It was, yeah. It was devastating. [But] there’s also that sense of, in some ways, triumph; that he didn’t die in his early 20s - in 1943/44 - which he thought he was going to, and could easily have done. And it’s actually a miracle that he didn’t.”

 “I think if someone had told him then that he was going to die in Berwick, in the year 2012, I think he would have bean heartened by that,” he added, “And rather astonished.”

Watch the full interview above, exclusive to Yahoo Movies UK.

[Colin Firth says he doesn't feel very British]

Based on the autobiography of former POW Lomax, ‘The Railway Man’ tells the story of a young British officer (played by Jeremy Irvine) who was captured by the Japanese in 1942, and subsequently tortured. Years later (now played by Firth), and still suffering from the psychological trauma of his experiences, Lomax tracks down one of his captors - returning to the site of the prison camp to confront and find closure to his bitterness.

‘The Railway Man’, directed by Jonathan Teplitzky and co-starring Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine, Stellan Skarsgård, Hiroyuki Sanada and Tanroh Ishida  is out in the UK 10 January 2014. You can watch a trailer for the film, below.