Curtain falls on Tony and the gang as 'Sopranos' scriptwriter makes his exit

Fans awaiting the fourth season of the hit Mafia series The Sopranos should get their viewing pleasure while they can – the creator of the television programme has warned that its life is nearing a natural, and entirely non-violent end.

David Chase, who has been writing the scripts about Tony Soprano and the tribulations of his family and his New Jersey crime clan from the start, told a Los Angeles conference of television critics that the next and fifth season will be his laston the programme.

Although HBO, the cable channel that broadcasts the show in the US, could theoretically continue it without Mr Chase, it seems unlikely.

"I wouldn't say it's irrevocable," Mr Chase said. "If they decide to go on, from a business standpoint, they could."

However, the two stars of the programme, James Gandolfini, who plays Tony Soprano, and Edie Falco, who portrays his wife, Carmela, both indicated that they would leave the set with Mr Chase. "I started with him. I'd like to finish with him," Ms Falco told the meeting.

The fourth season is due to be screened in Britain on Channel 4 this October. It opens for American audiences a month earlier.

Mr Chase said it would focus on the relationship between Tony and Carmela, but he declined to reveal the final fate awaiting Tony and the rest of the gang.

The end of The Sopranos, which has won a cult following and a raft of awards, will leave a gaping hole in the schedules of both HBO and Channel 4.

* The film director Steven Spielberg will follow his hit Second World War television epic Band of Brothers with an eight-part mini-series on the life of King Arthur. He is due to start work on the saga, which will have a budget of about £6.5m per episode, early next year.