Most directors talk endlessly and excitedly about “getting behind the camera”, their eyes glinting brightly about how they spent years fussing around with a script in the expectation of finally getting to jump into the director’s chair.

Not so Woody Allen. In fact, the directing part is the part he really hates. “It’s a new thing each time so you never learn anything,” the director mopes. “When I’m making a film I never learn anything that will help me on the next one."

He goes on to add: “There’s not much pleasure in directing. I get up very early and come to the set and stand around all day while the cinematographer spends three hours lighting the set, then I get 30 seconds to do the scene and then we move on and he lights for another three hours and I get another 30 seconds.

“It’s tedious. I don’t do it in order; just a piece here and a piece there .The pleasure is when I get home and look at all the footage and sit down and put it together and put in the music and make it look like something.”