His sons were watching a Scooby Doo cartoon on the Boomerang channel when they were called for tea.

As the children of a leading ad man, they were used to the latest electronic gadgetry at home – but there was no personal video recorder, such as a Sky Plus box, at their grandmother’s house.

Morris recalls the look of consternation on his five-year-old’s face as he realised he would not be able to pause the programme he was watching. He simply couldn’t understand “why he would watch something on a screen that he could not pause”.