One day not long after we had moved here, we had a visitor. He came in, stood in the middle of the living room, and said, ‘You really live here?’ He just couldn’t believe anybody would,” says Gillian Milner. That is because “here” is a detached four-storey five-bedroom house, in Streatham, south London, which was built in the early 1970s and retains the fittings and furniture chosen by the original owners.

“The furniture and accessories came with the house. The chap we bought it from had acquired them from the original owners, who built the place in about 1971,” Milner says. “When we viewed the house, I was pregnant for the second time. We wanted a family home, but I also wanted somewhere that we could rent out as a shoot location. The extra money would mean we could afford to buy a bigger house, and I could then work part-time in my old advertising job and still be a mum to my children, Jack and Lola, who are both under four. That was very important to me.”

Milner’s shrewd guess that an original 1970s den would bring film crews aplenty paid off, with at least one shoot taking place each week. She does admit, however, that, with small children, it hasn’t always been easy to juggle the two sides of her life.

“On the first shoot, the crew arrived while I was still in my dressing gown and tending to Jack, who was a baby. I opened the door and James Nesbitt was standing there. A bit flustered, I threw Jack at him and said I’d be back after a quick shower. James said, ‘That’s fine, I have kids too.’ ” More wised-up these days, Milner tries to arrange shoots on days when she is working. Failing that, she will creep round the part of the house not being used or go out for the day. And there are perks. Apart from seeing their home used for the wife-swapping shenanigans of the Comic Strip’s Sex Actually, shown on Channel 4, they have been given 1970s accessories, including two floral bedspreads, by film crews. “Guests take one look and say, ‘Oh my God, they’re hideous’, but I love them for the colours,” she says.

Guests aren’t the only ones to hate the house on sight – when the couple first looked round it, her husband, Richard, couldn’t stand it either. “It was a bit rundown, which didn’t help, but he really disliked the 1970s decoration, especially the avocado and daffodil bathrooms. We’re both 38, so he remembered it all from his childhood. He just couldn’t imagine living here,” Milner says. He wasn’t even tempted by the basement swimming or pool the disco room, complete with cocktail bar, but she managed to bring him round.

“It’s a brilliant family house, because there’s so much space to spread out in,” she says. “A friend said, ‘It’s a great party house, except you’re 10 years too late.’ But because we have young children, we still tend to have family and friends over and they bring their kids, and there’s lots of room for them to run around in. At Lola’s christening, half of the guests went for a swim in the pool, while the rest of us milled around up here and in the garden, with the children racing through the rest of the house.”

“I wasn’t a 1970s fan when we came here, but now I ask for period gear for birthdays and Christmas,” Milner says. “We’ve had loads of stuff donated by various parents. A friend’s mum gave me a kaftan, though I haven’t worn it yet, and I wouldn’t want to be without my yellow JVC cassette player or my Guzzini party-nibbles set."

28 Deerhurst Road, SW16; 020 8664 7129, www.deerhurstroad.co.uk

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