Any true Woody Allen fan will have noticed a particularly bittersweet link between many of his films.

“If you go back through my films you find that it’s a tip-off that whenever the boy meets the girl and it’s a rain scene they always mean business,” explains the director.

When The Daily Telegraph caught up with the director on set in Notting Hill last year, they found him torturously contemplating the blinding sunshine.

“I hate sunshine,” he muttered. “It should be raining. The sun is a very, very big problem.” He was shooting a scene in which Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto and Josh Brolin talk in a restaurant while sheltering from an unexpected downpour.

“I’m a big rain fan,” Woody concedes. “I think it’s beautiful in life and on the screen, so when Josh invites Freida to lunch and she says that it’s pouring with rain and he brings an umbrella, you know right away something serious is going to happen. If they had met on a sunny day, it could just be platonic.”