The star attraction on the Macbeth shoot today, Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood aside, is the beautiful Tatra 603 that you can see above. This was built Czechoslovakia in 1961 and the make was reserved for those high in the Party and the secret police. We have hired it just for today to film a scene involving the Macduff family. Wild horses, however, will not drag from me the unit member who drove just too close to a wall and inflicted minor damage to its lacquered paintwork.

That was this afternoon, when we were shooting what's known as 'day for night' (a daylight scene to be graded as if it's nighttime) in the fading sun. It has been another beautiful day here, with glorious blue skies flecked with delicate clouds. Somehow, and so far, we've largely avoided the torrential rain falling on London -- and we really need it to hold off tomorrow as well. We're shooting the big banquet scene in a room where we fear heavy rain would be distractingly audible.

This morning we were deep in the bowels of our location, in a small room that was once the wine cellar of the place we're in and then later an armoury. For us it's the bedroom of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth just before the banquet, and Sam McCurdy lights Kate at her dressing table with the loving care of a Caravggio or a Vermeer. There's some Peter Greenaway mixed into the shots here too. Plus, in the use of camera movement behind screens to obscure and reveal the intimate action, there's something that reminds me of an obscure Fassbinder film called Effi Briest.

Again, the scene has the visual focus and flair that's only possible when you shoot with just a single camera -- or one plus a supplement. In fact, we are using only one camera in the bedroom, largely because there's so little space. Elsewhere, the second camera crew is shooting close-ups of loudspeakers that the art team have rigged through the corridors to suggest more strongly a totalitarian world of barked commands coupled with constant surveillance.

After lunch (excellent chicken and a truly delicious summer pudding) we're outside in a curved covered courtyard with the Macduffs, Ross, the Porter -- and the car. The challenge here is to complete the scene before the light goes -- a familiar challenge for film making, particularly in the winter months, but not something that we've had to worry about before today's exteriors. Pranging the car doesn't help, and we're relieved that the damage is only to the paintwork. But the unit benefits from Seb's gentle urgings to complete. As it is, the light level at the start of the scene is radically different from that at the end, but we're confident that the grade will equal this out.

The final shots of the day are back in the armoury where we do some pick-ups of drawers being opened and closed. Lady Macbeth's gloved arm is played here by our third assistant director Kate -- and inside Macbeth's sleeve is your humble author's limb. Finally we move back to our big central space where we have the challenge tomorrow of the banquet scene, perhaps the most challenging day of the shoot.

We have committed to a track which runs right round the table, and also to a second dolly for our B camera. Rupert, Sam and Rodrigo talk through how they'll film the scene with constant sweeping movements across the action. It's not going to be easy, but then... there are no easy days on this, or to be honest on any drama shoot.