*Best Daphne Oxenford voice* Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. It's fair to say that Jim Davidson was not universally loved by the crew that worked on his inexplicably popular Thames sitcom, Up the Elephant and Round the Castle. https://twitter.com/AlanKelloggs/status/1306213778149834753

So, when the script called for the star of the show to be attacked by a mugger, a whip-round was held, and a member of the crew was nominated to approach the young actor playing the mugger, and offer him the money to accidentally on purpose forget to pull the punch on Nick Nick.

The money was a welcome supplement to the fee you'd expect to get for a cough and a spit even then, when TV was AWASH with spondulicks, and even on a top-rating Thames show. So the young chap agreed to take the challenge.

It was a location shoot, not studio. Take one. The director called 'action'. The mugger ran into shot, got into a scuffle with Nick Nick, and a scripted punch was thrown at the star. As per the verbal contract with the whip-rounders, the actor's fist connected with Jim's chin.

The actor apologised. Davidson was having none of it. "I'll see to it that you'll never work again. You're finished in this business," he told the impecunious young thesp. And true to his word, Jim used his considerable pull to make sure that the actor was blacklisted forever.

That's why, to this day, nobody has heard of David Thewlis.

There was another take, where Thewlis pulled the punch, and that's the one in the finished show, but there is in existence a tape of Davidson displaying both hurt pride and a hurt chin.