‘What did you want to do?’

‘I didn’t really care. I just wanted to have enough money to have my own place, a fast car, travel … that sort of thing. Aunt May managed to get me a job with the National Trust in York. I started as a programmes manager in the event-management department. Twelve thousand pounds a year – that was my first salary. It was pretty boring, to be honest with you, and I wouldn’t have stuck it very long, but then one of those weird coincidences happened and it sort of changed my life.’

He was talking faster now, aware of time ticking away.

‘They were shooting a TV series called Heartbeat in one of our properties near Leeds. You must remember it. It was a cop show set in the sixties. I was sent down there to act as a liaison officer – to make sure that everything went all right – and they asked me if I’d like to be an extra, just for a lark. I ended up playing a stable boy. The episode was about a farmer who shoots someone’s dog or something. Anyway, I was up to my knees in mud, hanging on to a horse, which terrified me because I’d never been near one before, and I loved every minute of it.

‘I can’t explain it to you, really. The moment I went on the set I felt I’d sort of arrived. I’d never realised that so much work and so many people went into the making of an hour’s TV. I was amazed by all the equipment – the cameras and the dollies, the catering trucks, the lights. It was massive. And then there were the stars. There was no “them and us”. They were really nice. I watched them doing their stuff, not once but lots of times, doing the same scene from lots of different angles, and I thought – I can do that! Maybe I remembered doing that play with Miss Havergill. I wanted to do it. She’d been right. I had it inside me. I was an actor!

‘And what happened that first day was really amazing. As it happened, the casting director happened to be on set. He was a guy called Malcolm Drury and after we finished filming, I went over and asked him if he could help me … you know, get into the business. I was actually quite nervous, but he couldn’t have been nicer.’

The strange thing was, I’d met Malcolm Drury myself. He’d worked on a TV play for children that I’d written at the end of the eighties. I’d liked him too.

‘We had a long chat. I was freezing cold and stinking of horses, but he took a liking to me and said he’d let me know if anything came up – and he was as good as his word. I got a few lines in Spooks and Little Dorrit – more horses – and after that I packed in the National Trust and got an agent and it all took off. There are lots of people who are a bit snooty, like Jordan, because I never went to drama school or anything like that, but I love what I’m doing and it seems I got lucky.’ He stopped. ‘I’m afraid I haven’t helped you very much, have I – and now I’ve got to get ready. I didn’t kill Harriet Throsby and I hope you find out who did. Let me know! But if you don’t mind …’