The festive season does not start until I watch Love Actually.

It’s not beginning to look a lot like Christmas until I hear the words “Eight is a lot of legs David” and Christmas is not all around me until I’ve delighted in Hugh Grant dancing his way down the stairwell at 10 Downing Street to Girls Aloud.

This annual screening has become as much of a festive tradition as putting up a tree or eating my body weight in mince pies because, in the words of Emma Thompson’s character Karen, “true love lasts a life time”.

Emma Thompson watches Love Actually every Christmas like the rest of us