'Four Weddings and a Funeral' was the film that established Hugh Grant as. a bona fide leading man - but he was nearly known for more tragic reasons, according to its director.
In a new interview to celebrate its 30th anniversary, Mike Newell discussed the near-fatal accident that almost caused the film to go down in lore for all the wrong reasons.
As you may recall, the opening scene sees Grant and Charlotte Coleman, who plays his best friend Scarlett, racing down a motorway in a mini as they dash to a wedding - and reversing back after they realised they'd missed an exit.
However, the scene almost ended in tragedy as Newell revealed that Grant was really driving the car in the scene - and that they almost hit a truck that was heading towards them at full pelt.
"That scene on the motorway, for some reason, Hugh was actually driving – he shouldn’t have been but he was," he said. "They were within inches of backing at full speed into a truck that was coming at them.
"I suddenly saw the whole film collapsing in front of me, and what I had done was engineer the death of the leading man on the motorway."
Thankfully, that wasn't the case and Grant, of course, went on to enormous success, while the Richard Curtis-penned film became one of the most loved British rom-coms ever.
Here's the scene, in case you forget it...
