The sixty seconds of pure star quality Sex and the City sequel And Just Like That has been crying out for… She demanded $1 million and only spoke 20 lines but Kim Cattrall’s return delivered

Sex And The City without Samantha Jones was like toast without butter. No wonder, then, that her highly anticipated cameo in last night’s finale of And Just Like That – the sequel to SATC – has caused such a stir.

After a bitter six-year feud with Sarah Jessica Parker (SJP), who plays Carrie Bradshaw, Kim Cattrall vowed never to play man-eating PR executive Samantha again. But earlier this year, she was persuaded to reconsider after fans said the story of life and love in Manhattan just wasn’t the same without her.

Here, original SATC superfan CLAUDIA CONNELL gives her riotous take on Kim’s big comeback at the end of the second series and the other surprising twists in the final episode (spoiler alert!)

A VERY EXPENSIVE CAMEO

Kim Cattrall was on screen for no less than 60 seconds last night. The actress is rumored to have been paid $1 million (£790,000) to film the scene – and she speaks just 20 lines, which equates to an impressive £13,166 per second of airtime.

According to Cattrall, the CEO of TV network HBO called her and asked what it would cost to return. Being styled by Patricia Field, the celebrated costume designer who worked on the original series, but not the reboot, was one of her requests.

Officially, Field was unavailable for the reboot due to working on Emily In Paris, but some suggested that Field was not actually asked to do And Just Like That, as SJP resented her close friendship with Cattrall and punished her.

Insisting on Field, who dressed Cattrall in a red dress and gold coat and let her hold a giant, oversized green purse in her hand, may be Cattrall’s swipe.

Cattrall also insisted that her makeup be done by famed cosmetic artist Kyra Panchenko and her hair by Ryan Trygstad, who gave her new wispy bangs.

The scene was filmed in New York in March and lasted four hours, after which Kim said she “went home and had a big martini,” without meeting any of her three former co-stars.

THE LAST SUPPER

Carrie Bradshaw may be the protagonist of SATC, but it is Samantha Jones who became the fan favorite.

Over the course of six seasons of SATC, Carrie went from a gutsy, independent sex columnist to a whiner with a shoe fetish who couldn’t seem to function without a man.

But bed hopping, loving toy boys, childfree by choice, Samantha always stayed true to herself.

And 60 seconds was all Kim Cattrall needed to bring the sparkle, warmth and star quality to And Just Like That that it had been missing for nearly two years.

Smiling as she sees Samantha’s name flash on her phone screen, “Hello London, what’s up lady?” asks Carrie as she answers.

Planning to be a surprise guest at the “last supper” party Carrie is throwing to say goodbye to her bachelor pad, Samantha – calling from her car – tells her friend that she won’t make it anyway due to flight delays. Asking to be on speakerphone so she can say goodbye to Carrie’s famous home, she puts on a fake English accent and quivers, ‘thanks for all you’ve done a damn great job, fantastic flat’.

And just like that she was gone, leading us to assume that she had probably slept with the driver before going out to dinner with her new British friends.

THE NEW MR RIGHT?

In series two of And Just Like That, Carrie rekindles her romance with Aidan Shaw, the furniture maker she first dated in SATC’s series three.

She broke his heart by cheating on him with Big and later breaking off their engagement. Carrie tells Miranda that sex with divorced father-of-three Aidan is the best she’s ever had this time around, and she begins to think that “Big was a big mistake.”

But just as she is about to move into the new four-bedroom maisonette she intends to share with Aidan, he arrives in New York to tell her they must put their relationship on hold for five years. His troubled youngest son needs him.

He returns to Norfolk, Virginia, and breaks Carrie’s heart, just as she did him twenty years earlier.

CRAZY CAT LADY

Carrie becomes a loving “mom” to a tabby kitten she names Shoe. Yes really!

Shoe sleeps in a shoe box by Manolo Blahnik. The kitten was part of a litter that was abandoned and taken to the vet office where Che, Miranda’s (non-binary) ex, works. Is she ready to become a crazy cat lady?

SPANX Folly

Earlier in the series, annoying, idiot Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) makes the decision to go back to work full-time. Charlotte buys a chic black lace Prada dress to wear on her first day at her new job at an art gallery, but it’s tight on her stomach.

She tries a bone broth crash diet, but she can’t seem to shed the pounds. Instead, 22 years after Bridget Jones made big johns famous, she squeezes herself into body control underwear so restrictive she can barely walk.

Upon arrival at the gallery, she is greeted by an assistant in her twenties, plus size, wearing a crop top.

In a very contrived scene, a liberated Charlotte runs to the bathroom to jerk off her Spanx so that her little tummy takes center stage.

WORST PARTY EVER

Coincidentally, Carrie wins a lottery prize for a chef who cooks dinner for her and her friends. She decides to have a ‘last supper’ in her flat before she moves out.

The table is decorated with roses and linen napkins with Carrie’s initials. While she uses her kitchen for extra clothes storage, the chef cooks at the neighbour’s house.

As she sits around the table, she asks her guests to say one word that represents something they want to release.

“Guilt,” says Miranda. ‘Boundaries’ says Charlotte. “Shoes,” says Carrie. Not really, especially given the name of her new pet. She goes for ‘expectations’.

LINKED MIRANDA

Miranda’s estranged husband Steve spoke for all of us in the latest episode when he said, “You’re not going to turn around and be straight again, are you?” after meeting his ex, who made him fall for Che in the first series of And Just Like That.

Miranda, once the fiercest and most successful of the characters, has turned into an insecure, clumsy midlife Mr Bean.

She describes herself as a “sexually confused alcoholic” and is single for the second half of this series after breaking up with Che.

The former top lawyer works as a trainee at a human rights organization and seems lost…until she meets buxom BBC producer Joy (Dolly Wells), who appears to be her love interest in the next series.

SEEMA: THE NEW SAM?

Outspoken, successful and with an insatiable sex drive, real estate agent Seema Patel (Sarita Choudhury) has helped fill the void left by Samantha.

She became best friends with Carrie after selling the apartment she shared with Big. In this series she gets involved with film director Ravi and – in true Samantha style – has sex with him in the master bedroom of the multimillion-dollar apartment she shows him.

She even gets credit for sharing the final scene of the finale with Carrie. While relaxing on sun loungers on a Greek island, the two women are seen sipping Cosmopolitans – the cocktail that made SATC famous.