Eddie Irvine

I had just been filming a tragedy playing out in one of the most appalling orphanages in Eastern Europe when I got asked to go and live with Formula One driver, Eddie Irvine.

He was leading the world championship at the time and was likely to win. Not being an F1 fan, it was a relatively easy film for me to make because I was not really interested in asking him about cars and racing - but more about himself and what it felt like to be doing what he was doing. Because the questions I asked were not the usual fare, he seemed to really enjoy answering them and opened up his world to me.

I ended up living with him in his flat in Italy and on board his superyacht in Portofino. We used to go running together in the evenings and he struggled to keep up with me because he wasn’t really taking his training seriously.

The night this film went out on Channel 4 in prime time, I got so many work offers from around the UK TV industry that I had a full-on panic attack and couldn’t go into the production office. I just sat on the pavement outside palpitating and in tears.

It launched my career, but I was finding myself more and more in a world where I was unable to cope with both the lifestyle and the pressures.