Kiefer Sutherland finally admits Jack Bauer had more bad days than is believable

'How many bad days can one guy have before it starts to look stupid? Probably about seven, but we did nine.'

If repeatedly crushing terrorist threats wasn’t stressful enough, Jack Bauer had to do so within a 24-hour time, while parcelling out the action in hour-by-hour instalments.

You think there’d come a point where the secret service call on another highly-trained poor sod to save the day, and Kiefer Sutherland thinks that point was two seasons ago.

"How many bad days can one guy have before it starts to look stupid? Probably about seven, but we did nine!" he told AdWeek, confirming that Jack Bauer comeback mini-season 24: Live Another Day was designed to be a goodbye to the character and he intends for it to remain that way.

"The whole hook to get an audience back to watch [our last miniseries 24: Live Another Day] was, this is a onetime deal, so you should watch it - and then, when it worked out for us, go, oh, we decided to do another one? I don't think that's right."

In spite of this, Sutherland didn’t want to rule out a Bauer-orientated movie.

"I know never to say [you've seen the last of Jack Bauer]... It doesn't mean that we can't make the film," he added. "It's a character that I love until the day I die."

Jack might be retired from the shooting wives in the leg game, but the 24 franchise is ploughing on.

New series 24: Legacy kicks off in February 2017, which, judging by the trailer, looks like it was shot and edited on a smartphone.