The pair starred together in the television drama The Ebony Tower, made five years before Lord Olivier’s death aged 82 in 1989, and the actress recalls that in between shooting a bedroom scene, Olivier wept on her shoulder.

He told her: “Oh Greta, I haven’t got any work after this for six months. No one wants me any more...”

Scacchi, 48, adds: “He was acknowledged as the greatest actor of his day, yet he was riddled with insecurities. I decided there and then that I would never allow myself to get like that.”