Nathalie Emmanuel thinks major TV shows need to address representation issues ''from the beginning''.

The 31-year-old actress portrayed Missandei,the sole major black female character in 'Game of Thrones' and she admitted she and co-star Jacob Anderson, who played Grey Worm, felt very ''conscious'' of how important they were to people of colour, so called for other programmes to have more diverse casts so there isn't one person given the focus of so many other people's attention.

She said of her character's death: ''It definitely caused me to reflect a lot more - about race and diversity more generally.

''At the end of the day, if there's ever a show on the level of 'Game of Thrones' again, representation has to be part of the conversation from the beginning. That way, there's no single person who has to represent every other person of colour.

''It's a conversation I used to have a lot with Jacob [Anderson], who played Grey Worm, the only other major non-white character in the series.

''We were always really conscious of how much our being part of 'Game of Thrones' mattered to people. It made us really protective of Missandei and Grey Worm.''

Nathalie also praised co-star Emilia Clarke - who played Daenerys Targaryen - for coming to her defence when an extra made a comment about her revealing costume.

She told Britain's Vogue magazine: ''Emilia and I got on like a house on fire from the beginning. When I joined the cast, she had already been shooting 'Game of Thrones' for a few years, and she was definitely ready to have some female energy around her.

''She and I always looked out for each other. If you're the only girls on a male-dominated set, it bonds you in a certain way.

''In my first season, my costume was pretty revealing, and there was an incident with an extra who made a comment about it on set - I mean, typical - and Emilia straightaway had my back. It got handled.''