Plans to film the third series of an award-winning US drama series in Israel have now been cancelled due to concerns about the crisis in Syria.

American producers of the Emmy Award-winning Homeland series announced the decision to film key scenes in Morocco instead of Israel at the weekend. They reportedly told their Israeli counterparts, who are now expected to lose thousands of pounds, that “security” concerns affected their decision.

Scenes from the show’s first and second series, which was inspired by an Israeli prisoner of war drama Hatufim and former IDF soldier Gilad Shalit’s story, were filmed in Israel.

One source told Ynet: "We were already getting organised, we even received scripts, and in the end we were told that the shooting had been moved. It's frustrating."

The third series of Homeland, which stars Damian Lewis and Claire Danes, will air this month in the US and October in the UK.