SOME FACTS YOU DIDN’T KNOW...

■ Grand Slam was originally a road movie about a Welsh brass band travelling to Brussels, until DJ Thomas (assistant head of programmes at BBC Wales) suggested a rugby-themed rewrite. ■ The scene where the rugby trip arrives at the customs desk at Charles De Gaulle airport was actually filmed in the foyer on

BBC Wales’ Llandaff building. Former Welsh kids’ telly favourite Mici Plwm, who played one of the gendarmes, said: “When I was offered the part I was so excited and thought : ‘A week filming in Paris - brilliant!’ Then I realised it was going to be one afternoon’s work just up the road from where I was living at the time.”

■ The shots inside the flight heading for Paris were filmed in a very old plane at Rhoose Airport Museum. Greaseproof paper was put over the windows to give the illusion of sky outside and to stop the audience from seeing cars going past.

■ Grand Slam was originally 75 minutes long but, just days before transmission, had to be cut down to an hour in order to be finished by midnight when, thanks to a proposed strike, the plug would be pulled on the broadcast. One of the main things to end up on the cutting room floor was an extended sequence where Maldwyn fantasises about the romantic Paris of his dreams.

■ Director John Hefin manages a little Hitchcock-style cameo appearance at one point, emerging from a public loo in Montmartre shaking his leg as he walks.

■ Grand Slam: The Book is still available in limited numbers from Y Lolfa