She told Lean's biographer Kevin Brownlow,I never suffered so much in my life as I did at that studio. They were absolute monsters, and everyone assumed I was Basil Dean's girlfriend. They were all freemasons and they would never give David a job because he had the wrong handshake.Although her relationship with Lean, whom she married in 1940, was constantly subject to his infidelities, Walsh recalled their early days fondly:We worked all day and danced all night and slept through the weekend, waking late on Sunday to make love, to read the Sunday papers and to breakfast on eggs and bacon And, of course, we went out to a film. If a customer has been mis-sold an endowment then they are entitled to compensation and we firmly believe they should receive 100 per cent of the compensation."It is not fair to [customers] that on average 25 per cent of the money should go to a third party when by complaining directly to us they can achieve the same outcome."The agencies argue that they provide a valuable service, with most of their customers unlikely to have realised that they qualified for compensation if it was not for the approach they received from the agency.Marianne Fitzjohn, a director of Endowment Justice, a complaints handling agency, said: "I wholeheartedly support their drive to send compensation cheques directly to clients We already do that. Of that £1.7m £438,000 was paid in commission.Pru will now write to all clients who use complaints handling agencies, advising them to apply for compensation directly. Prudential, the UK's second largest insurer, launched a war against so-called ambulance chasing complaints handling companies yesterday, vowing to send all endowment mortgage compensation payments direct to their clients, even if they have appointed an agency to act on their behalf. In a statement released yesterday, Pru said more than £1.7m of the compensation which it has paid out for mortgage endowment mis-selling over the past year, has gone through complaints handling groups, most taking commission of up to 40 per cent. Pru is also writing to complaints handling agencies warning it will try to put them out of business.Mark Wood, the UK chief executive of Prudential, said: "We are concerned that customers may not know that they have the option of dealing with us directly, and that this will cost them nothing.

BP's refining and marketing arm, which includes its UK petrol forecourts business, increased profits from $920m to $1.42bn But this was largely due to higher refining margins. Retailing margins were lower because of the increase in crude prices.Lord Browne said he appreciated motorists' concern at rising fuel costs but maintained the price of a gallon was "quite a bargain" before taxes, which accounted for 75 per cent of the amount paid at the pumps.. Lord Browne also predicted the eventual tax settlement would be significantly lower than $1bn.Buoyed by an average oil price of $48 for the quarter, BP's exploration and production arm increased profits by 56 per cent to $6.5bn even though production remained flat at 4.1 million barrels a day. He said BP had been reassured by Mr Putin that it would not be "positively discriminated against". Although it expects the actual price to remain at least $10 above that, Lord Browne said it would be a "step into the unknown" to raise its benchmark for investment because most new projects did not start producing oil for five or six years.Lord Browne said he had been "very encouraged" by remarks made by Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, when he met him last week to discuss the company's Russian joint venture TNK-BP, which received a demand for $1bn in back tax this month.

He also said that in the medium term the oil price was likely to be supported at about $30 a barrel.BP's investment rule is that any new development must be profitable at an oil price of $20. Shareholders received more than $4bn in dividend payments and share buy-backs.Lord Browne of Madingley, BP's chief executive, said continued growth in demand for oil and the limited spare production capacity would keep the price at more than $40 even though oil stocks were above trend levels. BP, the world's second biggest oil company, forecast yesterday that oil prices would remain above $40 a barrel for the remainder of this year but said there would be no relaxation of its rules governing investment in new projects. The forecast came as BP unveiled record first quarter profits of $5.5bn (£2.9bn) - a 29 per cent increase on the same period last year - thanks to the surging oil price. The pound fell against both the euro and the dollar yesterday as traders said the survey had reduced the chances of another rate hike."The softer tone in manufacturing alongside the increasing caution of consumers will make it difficult for the monetary policy committee to sanction any further tightening in the neat term," said Simon Rubinsohn, the chief economist at the fund manager Gerrard..