Mr Beresford said the winners would be best advised to keep quiet about their good fortune - and try to get themselves sacked from their jobs so as not to rouse suspicion.

An immeasurable social chasm was to divide our heroine's personality thereafter from that previous self of hers who stepped from her mother's door to try her fortune at Trantridge poultry-farm.

Instead of the complicated deal with Fortune Brands, Diageo could simply try to buy Jack Daniels, whose sales volumes and selling price are higher than Jim Beam's in America.