“And then this old bloke said, ‘I’m gonna call 999! If you don’t come and help me now, I’m gonna call 999.’ And the nurse – well, I think it was a nurse – one of the staff, anyway – told him he couldn’t call 999 from an A&E department. What did he think was going to happen?  An ambulance crew is not going to come and treat him in A&E.”

“What was wrong with him?” I ask.

“Something to do with his leg, I think,” says ActorLaddie.  “He had a sort of boot thing on it. Anyway, he then kind of grabbed at a passing doctor and said ‘I’ve been waiting for hours – why can’t you look at my leg?’  And the doctor stopped for a second, looked at the chap and said ‘because I have a patient who is dying.’  That shut him up for a bit.  

“I wanted to say to him, be grateful that you are waiting in a wonderful hospital with amazing staff and resources none of which are going to charge you a penny. But I didn’t have the energy.  I did think it, though, really, really loudly.”