Sean Bean recently completed filming of Sharpe’s Peril (ITV1, possibly November) – and “peril” is no exaggeration, according to the star.

“I do my own stunts and the director says, ‘Stand here,'” he tells me.

“And I think, ‘Hang on, there’s some Semtex about to go off.’ And he’ll say, ‘You’ll be all right.’ It’s not tested or rehearsed. It just goes bang.”