During a break in re-recording her voice for the 1970 film The Adventurers, Olivia de Havilland found herself sitting on a bench in the little hall next to the recording room at Twickenham studios in south-west London. I, a young assistant on the film, was sitting next to her. Opposite us was a public telephone.
Olivia was worried about her circulation. If you pressed your skin, she thought, it should spring quickly back to where it was before when you lifted your finger. Hers did not. To demonstrate, she stuck her leg straight out in front of her and started to press it in different places. I, so that we could compare, rolled up my trouser leg and stuck my leg out next to hers.
At this moment, two tiny figures in Edwardian cricket togs, white trousers, pink-and-white striped blazers and boaters appeared. They were from the next-door film, The Magic Christian. For a moment, we all froze.
The tiny cricketers had come to make a phone call. They changed their minds.
