I loved being in Scotland to shoot this haunting thriller

made for the landing. Mr McCormack (a volunteer) and myself proceeded to the lightroom where everything was in proper order. The lamp was cleaned. The fountain full. Blinds on the windows etc.”

Moore’s theory suggested that the men may have been attending to some kind of repairs or rescue by the shore and were swept away by a giant wave.

A BBC Radio nan Gaidheal in Stornoway report recently included a story about a woman from Crowlista in Uig, who was hanging out her washing on the day of the disappearance and reported a massive wave rushing towards shore which swept away her washing and line.

The lighthouse story was immortalised in the 1912 poem Flannan Isle, by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson. And it has since been told in various films, song and drama.

It featured in 1977 Doctor Who serial Horror of Fang Rock and chamber opera The Lighthouse, from 1979.

Phil Collins was so impressed by the story that he wrote song The Mystery of Flannan Isle Lighthouse in 1968, which appeared in the Genesis archives in 1998.

The lighthouse setting has been parodied in a series of Chewin’ the Fat sketches.

Greg Hemphill’s Twitter bio has a gag based on the abandoned lighthouse. And Ford Kiernan’s classic comedy set-up the Lighthouse Keepers, which features two men on “Aonach Mhor” instead of Eilan Mor in 1901, is the origin of their “Gonnae no dae that” catchphrase.

GERARD BUTLER ON THE VANISHING