“Thanks to Sammy, Lola and Timmy all the ducks were laid out. We had a country house, an old pub, a retired football hooligan who kept repeating ‘he was shitting himself’, a drinking horse and trainer, a Scotsman, a Viking, a love-struck gardener and a strongman pushing a car with two ladies up a hill in Basingstoke.

What could possibly go wrong?

Fortunately having left the plant on set, she was rescued and placed on the Christmas table with a pair of Ivan’s slippers.”