Back in 1961, British Lion Films released an X-rated (16+) sci-fi disaster movie called The Day the Earth Caught Fire.
The apocalyptic film imagined a nuclear catastrophe tilting the Earth off its axis and sending the planet in the direction of the Sun.
Edward Judd starred as an investigative journalist looking into an Establishment conspiracy, with much of the action taking place at the real-life Daily Express Fleet Street office before we moved in 1989.
Director Val Guest was friends with Arthur Christiansen, editor of our newspaper from 1933-1957, who cast him in his old role for the sci-fi movie.
However, there were a few issues on set, given that the old hack wasn’t actually an actor.
Guest said years later: “We had terrible trouble with him, not trouble, the poor guy could not remember a line… We finally did it almost line by line… When he realised what he’d bitten off [more than he could chew], then it was too late. And I couldn’t really recast by that time.”
Of course, the director was forever grateful that Christiansen had helped secure filming at the Daily Express Fleet Street offices by persuading the owner, Lord Beaverbrook.
If that wasn’t enough, a pre-fame Michael Caine has an uncredited speaking role in The Day the Earth Caught Fire, which you can watch below.
Caine, who was 28 when The Day the Earth Caught Fire was released, played a police constable in a cameo scene. Speaking with Judd’s journalist Peter Stenning, the Cockney legend tells him in his car, “Keep moving please, down to the Embankment, the road’s closed”, before allowing him to drive through. In his autobiography, the 91-year-old writes that he doesn’t think he did a good job, but we couldn’t disagree more.