Homeland hit by security breach as 100,000 people illegally download series three premiere

'Homeland' stars Claire Danes and Damian Lewis (Channel 4)

The first episode of the forthcoming episode of Homeland has been leaked online a month before its official US premiere.

The episode exceeded 100,000 downloads by BitTorrent users in the first few hours, Torrent Freak reports.

With over 2.4 million downloads, the popular Showtime drama was one of the most pirated TV shows of 2012.

The leaked premiere episode is a so-called ‘workprint version’, which lacks opening credits and some final touches such as bomb craters. There is also one scene where the voice of an actor is dubbed.

But the unfinished production cut did not stop fans from creating stills of the episode, which have circulated online.

The leak is thought to have come from a post-production studio given the episode’s unfinished nature, and was shared by a group called ‘HOMELAND’.

Showtime has not officially responded to the leak, although Deadline reports that the show’s producer 20th Century Fox has got their antipiracy unit working on the issue.

It is already known that Damien Lewis won't appear in the first two episodes of the show. Lewis confirmed his character Sgt Brody has "disappeared into a tunnel and exfiltration system that Carrie has affected".

Carrie will also be in isolation for a large amount of the forthcoming series. Claire Danes said: "It's pretty bleak in the beginning".

Series three of Homeland premieres in the US on 29 September, and comes to Channel 4 in early October.