I suppose that the most memorable event in the making of Metro-land was the last, after the shooting and the editing and the writing were all over: the recording of John's commentary. He was the finest reader I have ever known, with his mellifluous voice, perfectly judged intonation, superbly natural pacing and emphases.

There was no one like him for reading verse, either his own or other people's (he was very impatient with the way actors read poetry, by the way). So I was looking forward to recording day. But when I arrived at the studio in Oxford Street, the editor seemed anxious. "Have a word with Sir John," he said, "see if you think he's all right." He wasn't. His speech was slurred and very slow. Had something dreadful happened?

We phoned his doctor, who asked to speak to him. It emerged that, after lying awake for hours worrying about the coming ordeal, he had taken sleeping pills at about 5am. He was really not fully conscious, and the only thing to do was to let him sleep it off. How were we going to manage that? By good luck, the studio had a camp bed and a blanket. The Poet Laureate was put to bed, the lights were turned out, and we tip-toed away — I to see if I could negotiate a lower rate for sleeping than for commentary recording.

When we returned several hours later, Betjeman was gone. Apparently he had woken up perfectly refreshed, and taken himself off to Wheeler's for a dozen oysters and a glass of bubbly. He reappeared, wide awake and in excellent form, to deliver the relaxed and masterly performance we love and remember today.

Our next film, A Passion for Churches, was more stressful in the making. John was a little older, a little slower, a little less well. The subject, a celebration of his beloved Church of England, much appealed to him. But it did not lend itself so easily to a narrative structure. Eventually we came up with the discipline of making it all in one diocese. Not Southwark, as he first suggested, but Norwich.

The big advantage of the Diocese of Norwich, apart from the many wonderful mediaeval churches, and the remote and unspoilt countryside, was Lady Wilhelmine Harrod, "Billa", old and dear friend and, for a brief time, fiancée of John's. She was a powerful, indeed irresistible, force in Norfolk church life, and a formidable ally. Moreover John could stay with her at the Old Rectory in Holt, and be comfortable.