Nicholas Hoult terrified his wig would catch alight during filming of The Favourite 

The X-Men star wears a towering white curly wig as politician Robert Harley in the black Regency comedy, set in the court of Queen Anne. He said: “They weren’t too hot but they were more of a fire hazard because in the film they use natural light of candlelight and there were a lot of open flames and highly hair-sprayed and permed wigs for me.

“It was a dangerous job but someone has got to do it.”

Hoult stars in the film alongside Olivia Colman, who is Oscar-tipped for her role as the queen, as well as Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz, and he admitted that the wigs were not the only hazardous part of filming.

Discussing a scene where he shoves Stone into a ditch, he said: “I did give her a pretty good push on the rehearsal and she went flying.

“In your head you imagine the scene and the physicality of something and so I was like, ‘This is how I push her’, so I pushed her and she went flying! She’s only a little thing.

“But she was okay, don’t worry.”

The Favourite is in UK cinemas now