Imagine quite how red in the face the already supernaturally rubicund Ken Russell must have been after repeatedly rushing into his burning house to rescue his wife earlier this week. As things turned out, the unfortunate woman had leapt from her bath when the fire began and, while the 78-year-old director was plunging into the inferno, she was lurking naked in the front garden.

It hardly seems necessary to point out how much the scene suggests similarly bizarre ones in Russell films such as The Devils and The Music Lovers.

"There was a naked lady running round the garden; what a pity I was not there to film it," Ken said. "The cottage had to burn down for me to prove my love, but it was probably worth it." This is rather like hearing that David Cronenberg has had a sexually voracious slug removed from his abdomen.