Two of these trees are pines and two are oaks; there can be no doubt that they are 400 years old because the mikado says they are, and he ought to know, for, as we understand, he planted them himself. But, whether they be quadricentenarians or not, Mrs. Potter intends to utilize them for all the advertising there is in them.

His nubile wife (Shriya Saran), also a TV journo, calls him names like “mouthpiece of terrorists”.

Over the past two years, particularly in 2018, Network Rail has come under fire about its approaches to trackside tree-felling across its 52,000-hectare estate. Conservationists accused it of wanton destruction.

Direction of the principal characters is effective, but the crowd scenes tend to the lumpish, with a paradoxically static feel, despite the overt busyness of it all.