“I thought, ‘What is the point of these lovely things sitting in the wardrobe, when it feels quite apocalyptic and scary outside?’ It felt so important to be really happy for the kids! And so you’d do it, and you’d forget – and then the shopping would arrive and you’d have to wipe it all down before you put it away, do you remember? It got to an extreme when I found these weird, brown apples and my husband said he’d boiled them, because people might have touched them. I said, ‘Right, but now we can’t eat them!'” She starts to laugh, helplessly. “That was a really weird time, us dressed in really bright clothes, boiling apples!”

Knightley is at pains to emphasise that she appreciates her comparative good fortune. “When you’re in a scenario like this, and you know there’s nothing you can do but stay at home, you realise the utter frivolousness of your existence – and the utter awe for nurses. How could you give them only a one per cent pay rise?” she fires up. “That’s a feminist issue!” Still, like everyone, she has experienced “an emotional rollercoaster” over the past few months.