Look out at the end of this year (if you are in France) or next (if you are not) for a major disaster drama-doc called La Grande Inondation. It's about a flood hitting Paris after the Seine bursts its banks, and should include lots of lovely computer-generated imagery of the Eiffel Tower under water, Louvre masterpieces floating with the stream etc. It's being made by Bonne Pioche productions, who are the same people who made the Oscar-winning March of the Emperors, so it should be good. More to the point, it also features (in a very minor role) a certain Hugh Schofield -- playing his jounrnalistic self in a series of sequences in which the mayor of Paris is assailed by the press pack. I had a great day filming last week in the town hall of the 2nd arrondissement, which doubled pretty effectively as the Hotel de Ville. Fun - but tiring. There were about 25 extras in addition to the main actors, and for each shot we had to be minutely arranged in order to convey an impression of the largest possible number of people. On top of that every sequence was filmed twice -- first in French and then in English. Apparently this is highly unusual, and a bit of a gamble. A lot of French films are made with a second version in which the actors mouth the English, and the sound is dubbed in by native-speakers afterwards. Here the cast actually spoke the English script. As the French say, c'est pas evident. One mispronounced word, one garbled emphasis, and the spell is broken. But Bonne Pioche provided a very diligent voice-coach, an African-American lady, who got the cast to speak ver...y ... slow...ly. It was the only way, and it might work. I had to act out a piece-to-camera as if I was reporting live from the scene. No problem n English, but not a few takes in the French.