Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was a huge one for me — co-supervising the Special Effects with Neil Corbould, based at Pinewood Studios with location work across London.

There was an enormous amount of practical engineering on this film. On the 007 Stage at Pinewood we had huge columns collapsing around the set alongside a massive practical waterfall, with an extraordinary amount of water moving through the build.

For the London sequences we built Jack Sparrow’s carriage from scratch, complete with a concealed driving position so the stunt driver could control it while Johnny appeared to be driving through the streets himself. We also scattered flaming coals across Temple and Greenwich, creating as much of the chaos practically as we could.

E Stage at Pinewood produced some particularly good memories. We had barrels of beer exploding over the cast and crew, although thankfully what we were covering everybody with was our own effects concoction rather than the real thing.

There was also a huge swinging chandelier for Jack’s escape, combined with one of our large ornate breakaway windows — exactly the sort of oversized practical gag that suited the world of Pirates perfectly.

And of course there was Johnny Depp. I always enjoyed working with Johnny. He’s a very cool cat — relaxed, completely professional and always a pleasure to have around the effects.

It was a massive undertaking, full of water, mechanical builds, breakaways, fire, destruction and big physical gags. A lot of work, but a lot of fun, and an important film for me being there alongside Neil as co-Supervisor.