I rushed back into the study with my camera to photograph the orange toucans perched in the tree at the window. Two minutes earlier had been beside myself with excitement when I learnt that members of this exotic species had flocked in their hundreds to Edinburgh to set up home!

However, by the time I made my return to the room I discovered that the toucans had been replaced by a family of monkeys. Then suddenly the view from the window switched to a different jungle scene.

It was only then that I understood that there were, in fact, no tropical wildlife settling into a new life in the chilly north. Someone was projecting repeats of BBC1’s Animal magic onto the wall of our yard.