Desi Arnaz’s real claim to fame, however, was setting up Desilu studios with his wife. Although Desilu produced TV programmes it was run like a fi lm studio. Indeed, Desilu was to buy up the Hollywood fi lm studio RKO in 1958 (RKO was responsible for such classics as King Kong and Citizen Kane). By using cinema techniques for TV shows the quality of Desilu output was high and ideally adaptable for syndication. Desilu set standards for TV comedy that still stand the test of time. It was Desilu that showed the sceptical TV executives that it was possible to film a sitcom in front of a live audience. And Lucy was acknowledged as being a master in spotting a winning formula that would run and run. Such high-concept 1960s shows as Mission: Impossible and Star Trek were produced by the Desilu company and they ran for season after season.

StarTrek first aired in 1966 and has been running in one guise or another almost ever since, right up to the eponymous 2008 movie starring Chris Pine as Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Mr Spock. In 1960 Desi and Lucy divorced (success and alcohol had finally gone to Desi’s head), and Lucy took over as Desilu president and thus became one of the most powerful women in Hollywood. Despite Desi’s longstanding battle with alcohol and the end of his 20-year marriage, he and Lucy remained on friendly terms for the rest of their lives. Tellingly, Desi once wrote, ‘I Love Lucy was never just a title.’