His longtime stunt coordinator and second unit director Wade Eastwood told The Times of London newspaper how drained the actor was by one particular stunt in the eighth (and apparently final) instalment of his hit franchise Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning – one which involved him walking on the wing of a small biplane mid-air.

Saxon thought he was being pranked when the director of the new film contacted him for a role that actually expanded during production.

"I'm looking around and there's some other people who are gagging."