High-flying Mr Selfridge star Gregory Fitoussi hopes to land on his feet after exiting ITV drama

The first thing Gregory Fitoussi signed himself up for after filming his final scene on Mr Selfridge was to throw himself out of an aeroplane.

The French actor, who plays Henri Leclair in ITV’s Sunday night drama, has bid London au revoir after three years and makes his final appearance this evening.

As one of the show’s most popular characters there’s no suggestion Gregory was about to be pushed out of the door but he thought he’d jump anyway.

“I love sky-diving but you are not supposed to do that while you are shooting,” Gregory tells me.

“So I made it the first thing I did as soon as I was finished filming. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever done. It’s not just about falling through the sky, there is a special relationship with the elements as you’re doing it: the air, the landscape.

“You really appreciate the planet. There’s something really quite mystical about it and I would urge everybody to try it once in their life.”

Gregory’s first few weeks on set of the London department store drama must have felt a little bit like a jump into the unknown as he admits his English wasn’t extensive.

But with his French accent and Gallic good looks he was manna from heaven as far as viewers were concerned and his love triangle with Agnes (Aisling Loftus) and Victor (Trystan Gravelle) has been one of the show’s staples.

“I was OK talking in English on camera because I knew what I had to say, I just had to remember my lines,” the 38-year-old says in near-perfect English. But off camera I had trouble understanding what people were saying.

“You can’t ask people to repeat themselves three or four times so after the second occasion I would just smile and say ‘OK’ and try and figure out for myself later what they’d said.

“I still struggle with my English sometimes, I don’t feel absolutely comfortable with it, but I’ve really enjoyed the experience of working in the UK and would love to do more here.”

Henri’s farewell comes about as he seeks to recover from the post-traumatic stress disorder which has dogged him since his return from the war. But will new wife Agnes go with him?

After visiting Harry’s house to apologise for destroying the window display, the store owner implores his friend to confide in Agnes about his mental health problems and save his relationship.

“Henri has come back a changed man from the terrible things he saw in the war,” reasons Gregory.

“He’s having visions and can’t control his mind and knows it’s getting worse and that he has to do something about it.

“I was interested in his post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor’s guilt and read a lot of things about that. I don’t think they can help them any more now than they did in 1919.

“We may understand it better but each case is different and not everyone responds to medication. It’s a very serious and traumatic condition and it was interesting to play that.”

Gregory has also called it a day on the other TV show which British viewers can see him on, BBC4’s French police serial Spiral.

He says saying goodbye to people he has worked and become friends with is an actor’s lot and one to which he has had to become accustomed.

“I’ve done a few TV series in France and I’ve made a promise to myself not to stay too long because it’s not good for you as an actor and it’s not good for the audience.

“You need to move on and change, try something new, and that’s why I decided to leave Mr Selfridge and Spiral. Saying goodbye to the people you’ve hung out with on jobs for months at a time is difficult but something you get used to.

“You know that most of them you will never see again, we all have our lives to live and it’s especially difficult to stay in touch when you’re in a different country, so you teach yourself not to get too emotional.

“It’s not that you don’t feel anything but you have to get used to leaving people behind as an actor.”

So as Gregory’s many admirers hold back the tears, it’s for us to wish him “bon voyage” and “merci” for the memories.

Mr Selfridge is on ITV, Sundays, 9pm.