‘And I asked him, what did he know about it – impotence – how did it happen, if he knew why it had happened to him and he seemed as if he might tell me and then he just sort of stopped and said, “Oh it’s something from a long time ago, it’s too hard to explain.” And I did give him a cuddle, he seemed so sad. I just kind of held him, I just held him in my arms. And after a while he said – oh God it was sort of pathetic – that he hadn’t wanted to go to a doctor, that – that he’d gone to some library and looked up the word but it hardly existed, it was only a small item under i in medical encyclopedias. And that there didn’t seem to be any books about it and twice people came up and asked for his autograph. His face was so sad, telling me all this and he sounded so – incompetent. One always thinks film stars will have people to do things for them. I felt like crying myself. This was the man of our youth, who – oh you know.’

Pauline nodded. ‘I know,’ she said.

‘And I tried to say all the right things: probably just a stage, don’t worry about it, surely you should see your doctor, isn’t it maybe a sign of diabetes? Or perhaps there is some counselling that would help? I realised I didn’t know anything about the subject at all really. And he said he disliked all doctors intensely and how could he go to any doctor about such a thing when he was a sex symbol! It made me wonder afterwards though if that’s why Elvira Pugh left him. I did like her, he was lucky to have her compared to his other appalling showbiz wives.’

‘No,’ said Pauline, ‘Elvira is Benedict’s godmother, we see her a lot, and Elvira left him because he was having such a public affair with the appalling Iona Spring. Elvira said that as he hadn’t even embarked on marriage till he was forty and Elvira was already his second wife she felt he should have tried harder. She walked out.’

‘Remember his first wife?’ and both women grinned at exactly the same time. ‘And how surprised we all were that he’d taken the plunge at last at forty? Six months with Big Bosomed Betty Bailey. Remember that early TV series she was in, what was it called? Tempest or Stormbound or something, lots of heaving bosom through a flimsy dress in the rain, quite daring for TV in those days but God she was boring, Elvira must have seemed like a breath of fresh air, a crime writer instead of an actress. Foolish Terence Blue, to lose Elvira.’