When I told Sam I wanted to act in films he went to an agent, Robert Lang, and said he’d found a boy who was a great writer. And he showed a lot of old, unused filmscripts by the top boys as if they were mine. Naturally this agent is impressed and wants to sign me. But my friend explained how I’m an eccentric and, in spite of my literary genius, my great ambition is to be an actor. ‘Sign him as an actor,’ he said. ‘And then he’ll do the scripts for you.’ The agent agrees. I spilled a little soup on my collar before we met and sure enough I get a feature part on television. After a while he stopped asking me about the scripts.