FIFTY years ago this week, Castle Howard was in the middle of a Hollywood invasion. It had been chosen to film an MGM blockbuster, Lady L, starring Sophia Loren as an 80-year-old aristocrat looking back on her life and loves.

After reading our feature last week about York film cameraman Keith Massey’s memories of being a 20-year-old extra on the set, York’s Lord Mayor, Councillor Ian Gillies, has been in touch with memories of his own.

He was a young man with a Mini in those days and one Saturday in March 1965 he and a friend decided to go for a drive near Castle Howard. As they went along a narrow road, they saw an old-fashioned carriage coming towards them.

“I pulled off to the side, and as it went past, a woman put her head out of the window,” Cllr Gillies says. Strong language then followed.

The young Ian thought he recognised her and it suddenly clicked that she was Sophia Loren. Ian and his friend in their Mini had strayed into a shoot. “They had to go all the way back and do it again,” Cllr Gillies says. “We weren’t popular.”