Charles Fifield

In GLADIATOR, Maximus has a pet wolf. The dog who played the wolf was called Kyte, and also played Robbie Jackson's dog, Wellard, in Eastenders.

Watching PREDATOR and there’s Sven!

The Great Orme is a limestone headland on the North Wales coast. It has a herd of approximately 200 feral Kashmir goats. They were given to Queen Victoria in 1837 by the Shah of Persia. She kept them at Windsor. At some point in the Victorian era they were moved to the Great Orme. They have lived there, unmanaged, entirely feral, for approximately 180 years. They are technically still the property of the Crown. The Crown does not appear to be particularly exercising this ownership. The goats, for their part, have no opinion on the constitutional question. They have opinions on gorse, on limestone scrub, on the timing of the tourist season, and on the structural integrity of garden fences in Llandudno. Because several times a year: usually when the weather on the headland becomes unacceptable even by Kashmir goat standards, they come down. Into the town. They eat the hedges. They occupy the gardens. They stand in the road. They have been photographed in chip shops, bus shelters, and outside estate agents with the calm assurance of animals that know they were here before the terrace housing and will probably be here after it. Llandudno has 20,000 residents and 200 goats and it is not always clear who is more inconvenienced by the arrangement. The goats have never once asked permission. They were here first. Technically the Queen gave them the place.