We got to location, plugged in our big 5K lamp and the power tripped. I freaked out. For that moment all I wanted to do was go home to bed and never think about making films again. After a minute or two of mad panic I saw reason – we could just shoot close-ups today and do the wide 5K-requiring shots on other High Town days, when we’ve had chance to get hold of a 40A breaker.

So we got started. After three set-ups I replayed part of the tape.

It was blank.

This news I took suprisingly well. H. Lehmann Ltd. of Stoke-on-Trent – expect lots more angry phone calls. Repaired my arse.

So we got out the back-up camera and began again. At about this time David Dukes turned up with some of the props, namely Ezekiel’s armour and scythe. They’re fantastic. That cheered me up no end.

By this time it was getting pretty frigging cold, but we all seemed to be dealing with it well. The hospitality of the Green Dragon Hotel at “lunchtime” (11pm) was most welcome. Mmm, soup. Mmm, pie. Mmm, coffee.

After eating we picked up the slack, then had a brief hiatus whilst we awaited the belated arrival of the street sweeper. Its entrance made, we proceeded to shoot all of the cab interiors, in the waving-lights-past-and-shaking-the-camera stylee. Ray felt like an idiot. Having just watched the rushes, I can state for the record that he actually looked great, In fact, apart from a couple of dodgy shots where the lack of 5 kilowatts of illumination was sadly in evidence (and I hope to reshoot those tomorrow), everything looks fantastic.

And we wrapped only ten minutes late, having dropped a couple of shots but picked up others from the next few days. So a pretty good first day (apart from the heart-stopping technical catastrophes).

Right, now it’s 7:42am and I’m going to bed….

Edd’s fast asleep behind me. He just woke up briefly. The conversation went like this:

EDD: What time is it?

NEIL: Quarter to eight.

EDD: Balls. [Rolls over, goes back to sleep.]