From left: CDP alumni Sir Frank Lowe, Sir Alan Parker and Lord Puttnam photographed at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in London last month

Let’s not overdo this. It wasn’t as though I had rung a stranger to break the news that a loved one had died. But the conversation with Lord Puttnam, film producer and Labour peer, definitely had echoes of the language you might use and the sentiments you might express if someone had. He paused and searched for the right, obituary-esque tone of voice. “It is the passing of a great institution,” he said. The advertising maestro Sir Frank Lowe said: “It is sad but it has been inevitable for some time.”