The seeds for the demise of "Howards' Way" were sown in 1989 when, during the production of the fifth series, lead actor Maurice Colbourne, who played central character Tom Howard, suddenly died from a heart attack during a break in filming. Episodes were hurriedly rewritten to explain the character's absence, before he was finally killed off at the beginning of the sixth and final series, commissioned to end the programme and to tie up all the storylines. The final episode of "Howards' Way" was transmitted on 25 November 1990.