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It's a week of night shoots! The day begins at 1pm and ends at midnight. I love it! I spend the morning lying in, then going for a long walk or run. Then head to work at lunchtime. We need night for a big sequence at the end of episode 4.

"Over a hundred people called in to report that Haddon Hall was on fire!"

I don't want to give too much away (although you can of course go and read the book if you really want to know) but at one stage the story calls for Thornfield to be on fire. Ed Smith and his team from SFX GB spend days rigging Haddon Hall with fire effects. On the night it looks incredible! The fire service, whom we warned in advance, tell us the next day that over a hundred people called in to report that Haddon Hall was on fire! That shows the effects were pretty good, I'd say.

Some amazing stunt work also gets done this week. A fearless stuntwoman called Lucy Allen does the most incredible thing. You'll see it at the end of episode 4. I admire her all the more because she does nothing to hide her nerves. She's really tense about the whole thing, and I find it completely endearing. Why pretend you're not terrified when you are? When she's done her stunt and it's all passed safely and beautifully, her feeling of euphoria is huge.

Spine-tingling Pam

Pam Ferris, from Darling Buds of May and Rosemary and Thyme is here. I worked with Pam years ago, on my first ever job in TV. She was playing Sister Peggy Snow in series 1 of ITV's district nurse drama Where The Heart Is, and I was the trainee script editor. Pam was always lovely to me. She took great interest in the writing, and was always ready to congratulate the script team when we delivered a good episode. She was a real professional too, working really hard with the director and other actors to make the show as good as possible. She's such a positive person and takes a huge interest in those around her.

I was thrilled when she agreed to play Grace Poole. It's such an important and enigmatic role, I knew we needed someone of real skill and stature to play her. Pam is electrifying to watch. As she walks across the Thornfield kitchen, and fills her cup with drink, my spine tingles. I don't know why she's so interesting. She just is. I can't take my eyes off her.

Trouble with an owl

Willow the owl joins us for a couple of nights. He's a barn owl, and he comes with two lovely, very quiet handlers. You'll see Willow when Jane first arrives at Thornfield, and in an incredible shot in episode 4 during the fire sequence. Mike Eley, our talented director of photography, has been planning his owl shot for weeks. I even joke that he has left a space on his showreel for it.

"Willow's identified a perfect perch to land on and it's me! I let out a strange 'help me' sound."

The shot involves the owl flying about thirty metres from a burning castle, then towards and over the camera. The first night we try about eight times to get it right, but it's too windy and poor Willow keeps getting blown off course. He ends up on the ramparts at the other side of the castle.

The next night we try again. It's less windy, but Willow's still not quite flying in the line we want him too.

Take five, take six and it's not working. On take seven he flies off course. Towards me! I bend down so he doesn't fly into me. But to my surprise and horror, I feel some little scratches on my head. He's identified a perfect perch to land on and it's me! I let out a strange 'help me' sound. I have a flashback to me aged 4 on a day trip to London, when a bird-feeding episode went wrong and a load of pigeons sat on my head in St James's Park and I cried.

Willow's gentle handlers come to untangle him from my hair. I try and act cool, but fool no one. Happily, we get the shot on the next take and Willow is taken away.