Moreau’s mother, Kathleen Buckley, was a Tiller Girl from Oldham who went to Paris in the 1920s to dance at the Folies Bergère with Josephine Baker. She fell in love with a Frenchman, Anatole Moreau. "I believe they got married only because she got pregnant," says their daughter, "although nobody ever talked about that."

In 1936, Anatole was declared bankrupt and lost his hotel and restaurant. "As a child, you don’t really pay attention to talk about money, but I couldn’t ignore it. And one day my mother took me and my sister, who is 10 years younger than me, to England. We had a bungalow in Hove, and later in Littlehampton. I joined the Brownies, and we used to go to the cinema, which had been forbidden in France."

Her mother never explained why they left France. "But when war was declared she had a retour de flamme. She said,?‘We have to go back.’ It took about six days to cross to Calais, because of the submarines. When we arrived in Paris everyone said, ‘You English will be killed by the Germans.’"

Kathleen was sent to Drancy – from where many others were sent to concentration camps. She returned to Paris, but had to sign in every day at the local police station. In the course of the war, Jeanne took part in the black-market run from Paris to Brittany. That wasn’t all. "Out of arrogance, my friends and I made little yellow stars and wore them. The teachers went mad, and my father was very angry. They were all frightened to death."

"I was dedicating my life to art. I went to the school of dramatic arts, and then a young actress was needed to play Natasha in Chekhov. I got the part, and I had my picture on the front page of France-Soir, the evening paper. That’s how my father found out that I was acting. He was very angry."

To be precise: he hit her. But she forgives him. "You have to understand, he was from a peasant family, born in 1887. Being an actress was like being a whore. Now I thank him. He made things difficult, but it forced me to go further."

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