Gladiator sits up there as one of the genuine highlights of my career — not just because of the work, but because of the people, the locations and the experiences that came with it.

Directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Richard Harris and Oliver Reed, it was a huge production that took us from the UK to Morocco and Malta, with long periods spent away on location.

We shot the opening Battle of Germania sequence in the UK, and it remains one of the most physically demanding effects sequences I’ve ever worked on. We rigged hidden liquid-propane systems, flamethrowers disguised within Roman artillery, large fireballs, practical arrow hits and amputations, all carefully timed around camera, performance and stunt action.

It was freezing, muddy, exhausting and absolutely brilliant. When everything was running together — fire, smoke, explosions, horses, stunt performers and hundreds of background artists — that battlefield genuinely felt alive.

One of the more memorable pieces of kit on the film was a “lung tester” built by Steve Culhane. I had the honour of taking it around the set and using it to cover a fair number of the cast and crew in charcoal powder paint. The evidence is still there — some of the people who fell victim to it can be seen in the gallery below.

The location work afterwards took us much further afield, particularly to Morocco and Malta, and I could probably talk for hours about the experiences we had making the film and the places it took us.

But one memory stands above almost everything else: Oliver Reed.

I had the honour of sharing a drink with Ollie about a week before he died. Some of the scenes I watched him perform genuinely made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. He had an extraordinary presence — charisma, warmth and that same almost indescribable aura I had felt around Sean Connery. Talking about it even now brings those memories straight back.

For the scale of the practical effects, the travelling, the friendships and the sheer experience of making it, Gladiator is one of those films I feel incredibly fortunate to have been part of.