About a Dog was Debbie Barham’s last comedy proposal before she died in 2003. The programme stars Alan Davies, playing a dog, Jack, with his owner, Sarah, played by Kate Ashfield in the first series and Claire Goose in the second, in a sitcom told through the eyes of a canine.

While he can’t understand sexual foreplay “I just trot up,” he says, “give it a quick sniff and murmur, ‘stand still a minute’. That usually does the trick”, he has learned that eating his mistress’s dinner from the kitchen worktop isn’t a popular move. So he licks it instead. “I can never remember if I like olives,” he slobbers, sampling her pizza topping. “No, don’t like olives. Actually, that pizza looks better for a bit of a lick – what they call a glaze.”