One of the low points of Pinewood Shepperton's year was a fire on the studio's 007 stage, a vast 45,000 sq ft set that had been turned into a replica of Venice for Casino Royale, James Bond's most recent outing.

Yet the fire was not the financial disaster it might have been, according to Ivan Dunleavy, chief executive. Dunleavy said: "New accounting rules mean we have to take the insurance proceeds, deduct impairment to the asset's book value and associated costs and record the surplus as an exceptional profit."