It would be a struggle to fit so many stereotypes into one pantomime. There was the crafty Arab, the swashbuckling old Etonian, a supporting cast of unscrupulous English toffs and a chorus of South African guns for hire. The drama would have been incomplete without a ruthless African: Equatorial Guinea’s dictator for 30 years, Teodore Obiang Nguema.

Simon Mann, the old Etonian mercenary, walked free this week after a spell in one of Africa’s nastiest prisons. He was sent there after being convicted in an Equatorial Guinean court of plotting in 2004 to oust Mr Obiang. Hopefully his will be the last attempt by foreign mercenaries to impose their will on African soil.