Sagby-Brady, who was not a trained actor, said he was originally attended a casting after a friend told him they were seeking “some guys that had military experience and guys that didn’t and I was in the cadets”.
He spent 10 days in a 1940s-style military boot camp with the cast, where they formed a bond that lasts to this day.
“It was a group of guys who didn’t know anything about anything, and then turned us into what effectively looked like a believable company of soldiers and still stands today within friendships and brotherhoods between us as a cast,” he said.
His character, Cpl Mellet, was killed in action in 1945 but during preparation Sabga-Brady did meet a number of surviving members of Easy Company to build a picture of the person he was playing.
He said: “Meeting the guys that he actually served with, that really gave me something tangible and all the cast something tangible to work with. And unfortunately, none of the guys from Easy Company are now surviving, which is leading us to what we are doing.
“A number of us work closely with veterans foundations, mainly in the US because of the series being a US show and the following that it still has today, and through this, we get taken out to Normandy, and we interact with everyone that’s out there, right from current serving troops through to veterans and the general public and it’s such an amazing and humbling place.”
He added: “And the idea [for a D-Day parachute jump to raise money for veteran charities] blossomed from our experiences over there.”
The 80th anniversary of D-Day is on June 6.