24's surprise popularity

'24' actress Mary Lynn Rajskub has admitted she never expected her alter-ego Chloe O'Brian to be such a hit with fans, as she was only supposed to be in the show for a few episodes.

Mary Lynn Rajskub never expected her '24' character to be such a hit.

The actress - who portrayed systems analyst Chloe O'Brian in the last five series of the drama - is thrilled fans enjoyed her alter-ego so much, as she originally only expected to be in the show for a few episodes.

She said: "Did I expect Chloe to be so iconic? Absolutely not. I didn't expect for her to last more than four or six shows, so it was very surprising to me, a good surprise.

"I'm a very fragile person so I like it better when people say, 'We love you Chloe' then think she was mean or rude."

The 39-year-old star also spoke of the sadness that overshadowed the last season of filming on the show after the cast and crew learned it was to be cancelled.

She exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "I was pretty sad. We'd talked about it that whole last year, everybody on the crew, up until the last minute when they decided to announce it to us.

"I think they knew and didn't tell us for a few weeks, you could feel everybody was just like, 'What's going to happen?' but I think we could all feel it coming.

"It wasn't until the official announcement came that people really, there was a lot of hugging. We were very close, working together all those years. Everybody was pretty creatively invested to the show."

Season eight of '24' and the box set of all eight seasons are available now on DVD and Blu-ray.