Emma Thompson has confirmed what we suspected, that she isn’t going to be in the Love Actually mini-sequel not because of scheduling conflicts, but simply because it wouldn’t be right.

Writer-director considered writing a narrative for Karen without Harry, but ultimately decided against it.

"Richard wrote to me and said, 'Darling, we can't write anything for you because of Alan', and I said, 'no of course, it would be sad, too sad’” Thompson told PA.

"It's too soon. It's absolutely right because it's supposed to be for Comic Relief – but there isn't much comic relief in the loss of our dear friend really, only just over a year ago.

"We thought and thought but it just seemed wrong... to revisit the wonderful fun characters of Bill Nighy and Hugh Grant and Liam [Neeson] and all of that, that's fantastic – but obviously what would he [Richard Curtis] have done?"

"It was absolutely the right decision."

Thompson did, however, explain what might have happened to the couple since that infamous Joni Mitchell CD-orientated Christmas Day (which fits with the script editor’s confirmation that they stayed together in spite of it).

"Both of them would be in therapy by now and I would be working on some kind of ward,” she said.

Curtis previously described the idea of a Rickman tribute in the 10-minute short as “very complicated”.