Friday was lovely again. Summer is gripping on, like a child trying to hold onto monkey bars.

I went to see Nicky Barber near Winchester for lunch on Friday. As Anna’s godmother, she has loyally followed her progress, from birth to baby steps, through childhood to teens and on to adulthood. She was eager for her latest news.

Nicky devotedly watched Anna act on Family Affairs, the Channel 5 soap opera, running from 1997 to Christmas 2005. Selfless of her really, considering that soaps are not, exactly, her cup of tea.

Family Affairs was meant to rival Eastenders, but it never hit the big time. It ran Monday to Friday, each week night, for thirty minutes. It was not, shall I say, highbrow viewing.

Soap operas are not, as far as I am aware, the usual fodder for Sloanes – both pheasants and stags. Except these days, the youngsters are glued to Made in Chelsea. And Downton Abbey is an upper class soap, in a sense.

After Anna was signed by Sylvia Young Agency in the summer of 2005, they sent her for her first audition to play Chelsea Heath on Family Affairs, which was filmed in Thames Studios in Wimbledon. So off we trotted, mother and daughter, parked the car and went into the studio. It was buzzy. Loads of mothers and daughters were there. Some fathers too.

The audition process was just as it is portrayed fictionally. A frazzled woman came out with a clipboard, which she was scouring with a furrowed brow. “Anna Wilmot. You’re next. Follow me.” You could tell she’d done it a thousand times before. I wished her luck, not thinking in a billion years that she would get the gig.

The next day, we received a call from her agent. Anna had landed the job. You could have knocked me over with a feather.

One small glitch. We were all due to go on a family summer holiday to Cyprus. I would be heading there with Hugo and leaving Geoff and Anna to start her soap career. We had been living in our new Chelsea house for just over six months. And now my daughter would be playing a spoilt rich kid named Chelsea. Irony or what!

Today, I am sanding and painting the inside of the garden outhouse. I want to get it done before the winter damp comes. And it is on its way.