Bernard Hill will make an emotional TV appearance tonight as The Responder returns for season two hours after his death aged 79

Titanic and Lord Of The Rings legend Bernard Hill died on Sunday at the age of 79.

The actor’s death comes hours before he returns to television in Martin Freeman’s drama The Responder, which airs on BBC One tonight.

Bernard’s agent announced the sad news that Bernard passed away in the early hours this morning. His cause of death has not yet been announced.

The second series of The crime drama stars Martin Freeman as Chris Carson, a police officer struggling to keep a handle on his mental health.

Bernard stars as Tom in the second drama series, who is the father of Martin Freeman’s character Chris.

Chris tries to improve and go straight, but when Barnes (Amaka Okafor) tricks him into a dodgy car stop, he becomes embroiled in a drug war between two of Liverpool’s top dealers.

Paying tribute, Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, said: “Bernard Hill blazed a trail across the screen, and his enduring career of iconic and remarkable roles is a testament to his incredible talent.

‘From Boys from the Blackstuff to Wolf Hall, The Responder and many more, we feel truly honored to have worked with Bernard at the BBC. Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this sad time.”

Previously speaking about signing up for the series, Bernard said: “Well it all came in a bit of a rush and I found I had the script pages for the character they were talking to me about playing, just Tom’s scenes and I thought could be very interesting to play and was wondering what the rest of the script would be like and thought it would be a good idea to find out, so I said yes!

‘It turned out to be very good! Tony is a very talented writer, he is a true Scouse writer and writes with real honesty which is great.”

Bernard revealed that he had bonded with his co-star Martin before they started filming, meaning they “got along really well.”

‘I’d met Martin when I was in New Zealand and he was doing The Hobbit, so that was good and a useful bit of background to get started with and made it easy because we got on really well.

“I think we were a really good father and son, and it was good to find the little pieces of these characters that were hidden.

Bernard returned to Liverpool to film the BBC One series, where he had lived for many years.

He spoke fondly of the city, saying: ‘Liverpool is one of my favorite places, I have a great relationship with the city. I lived there for a long time and my daughter was born there, so it’s like my second home.

‘I went to the Royal Court Theater during the filming of The Responder and I didn’t know what was going on so I just went in.

“The manager came up to me and said, ‘What are you doing here?’ I said, “I’m doing a series,” he said, “well, do you want to come see the show” and when I looked it was Boys from the Black Stuff. I could not believe it! It’s been 40 years since I did Boys From The Black Stuff and there I was back in Liverpool watching it on stage.’

The actor was cast as Yosser Hughes, a working-class Liverpool man in The Black Stuff and its sequel, Boys from the Blackstuff, in 1982.

The same year he played the role of Sergeant Putnam in Richard Attenborough’s Oscar-winning biopic Gandhi, before starring in the 1983 BBC adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play Henry VI, playing the Duke of York.

He would later be cast as Captain Edward Smith in James Cameron’s massive film Titanic.

In the 1997 film, he played the captain of the infamous ship on what would be its first and only voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, before going down with the ship after it struck an iceberg.

It marked the beginning of a late career renaissance for Bernard, who was subsequently cast by Peter Jackson in the role of King Theoden in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The actor was praised for his portrayal of the embattled King of Rohan, who bravely fights to save his people from the forces of evil.

Hollywood kept calling, with Bernard making appearances in Dwayne Johnson vehicle The Scorpion King, Halle Berry horror film Gothika and the tennis-themed romantic comedy Wimbledon.

He continued to appear regularly on British television before being cast in the BBC drama Wolf Hall in 2015.

Adapted from Hilary Mantel’s historical fiction about the rise of Thomas Cromwell, Bernard portrayed the Duke of Norfolk in the show’s first series, before being replaced by Timothy Spall in the second.

The actor lived in Suffolk and is survived by his wife Marianna Hill and their son Gabriel.