His understudy was a young Michael Caine, and one Saturday night after the show O‘Toole invited him to a restaurant he knew.

Eating a plate of egg and chips was the last thing Caine remembered, until he woke up in broad daylight in a strange flat.

„What time is it?“ he inquired. „Never mind what time it is,“ said O‘Toole. „What f***ing day is it?“

It turned out that it was five o‘clock in the afternoon two days later. Curtain-up was at eight.

Back at the theatre, the stage manager was waiting for them with the news that the restaurant owner had been in and banned them from his establishment for life.

Caine was about to ask what they‘d done when O‘Toole whispered: „Never ask what you did. It‘s better not to know.“