Apple TV has snuck out a final episode of The Completely Made-Up Adventures Of Dick Turpin – after a planned second series was scuppered mid-shoot by Noel Fielding’s absence from the set.

Producers at Big Talk Studios have put together a 35-minute episode from the footage that was shot before the star left the series, using body doubles to complete certain scenes.

The special – entitled The Night Of The Werebear – has been released without any advance publicity, and billed as an extra seventh episode of Series 1.

As well as taking the lead role, Fielding was credited as a writer on the first series, which launched in March last year.

But filming on the second series halted in January over a ‘health issue with a cast member’, following reports Fielding had ‘failed to come to work after the Christmas break’. His agents  denied he had dropped out, but insiders told reporters he hd been too unwell to resume filming.

And when dates were rescheduled, Fielding was unavailable to make them, industry website Deadline reported at the time, meaning the series just 'ran out of road'.

 Duayne Boachie, Ellie White and Marc Wootton also star in the series as members of Turpin’s gang. 

The special – which revolves around a monster terrorising Hempstead –  sees the return of regulars  Mark Heap, Michael Fielding, Geoff McGivern and  Joe Wilkinson from the first series.

It  also features cameos from Lee Mack and Fatiha El-Ghorri as coach drivers, and guest stars Natasia Demetriou as monster hunter Helga, Asim Chaudhry as Craig The Warrior, Tom Davis as Clive, a villager with a secret and Kath Hughes as Tracy.