The Heart Surgeon

Orla Brady was very nervous about the nudity in Marcella's big love scene with Alex (Nigel Havers). To minimize the delay, director Audrey Cooke broke the ice by demonstrating how the scene would look. Cooke said afterwards that the crew, mostly male, did not know where to look when she undressed ("You should have seen their faces") and developed a sudden and deep interest in the wall behind them. The tactic worked and the scene was shot. "After seeing me topless," Cooke quipped, "she reckoned nothing could be worse than that." She says that she'd never done this before and "certainly won't be doing it again."