EastEnders' executive producer Diederick Santer said he would be playing an "interesting, but possibly irritating character".
And yet, of course, it has come to pass, just as Mr Santer foretold.
This is not to say that Mr Santer's commission will go down as a failure.
It was also that the commission's president, Jacques Santer, was too weak to control them.
Jacques Santer, the commission president, has since ruled that no commissioner should run for elected office.
The former EU President Jacques Santer has been elected as an Euro-MP along with commissioner Emma Bonino.
But in truth the commission had grown rather too full of itself under Mr Santer's predecessor, Jacques Delors.
The first task is to find someone to step into the shoes of the commission president Jacques Santer.
Mr Santer's designated successor, Romano Prodi, a former prime minister of Italy, is obliged to look on impatiently.
The British tried to diminish the commission when they contrived a deliberately weak president for it, Mr Santer.
One or two members of the Santer commission, untainted by the scandal in March, will probably reappear in the Prodi version.
Untouched by any of the accusations, Sir Leon was asked by Mr Santer to help liase with investigators on the commission's behalf.
BBC: News | UK Politics | Sir Leon: Britain's old hand in Brussels
Even those who quail at the idea of a United States of Europe might yearn for a stronger hand than Mr Santer's.
S. I've added Ben Santer, Tim Barnett, Ed Cook, Keith Briffa, Malcolm Hughes, Ray Bradley and Phil Jones to your mailing list.
The Santer commission's resignation was a triumph for the parliament: it brandished the threat of a censure vote, and the threat worked.
This raises the next big question: who will come after Mr Santer?
The commission's Mr Santer has been in office for two-and-a-half years, but has deliberately adopted a lower profile than his predecessor, Jacques Delors.
Prior to the mass resignation, Sir Leon had resolved to leave Brussels when the Santer commission was due to end its term in December.
BBC: News | UK Politics | Sir Leon: Britain's old hand in Brussels
Even the European Commission's president, Jacques Santer, concedes that a dangerous gulf has opened up between the Union and the concerns of its citizens.
They also took a quick decision to ask Romano Prodi , a former prime minister of Italy, to succeed Jacques Santer as the commission's president.
Instead he has been serving as a vice-president under Jacques Santer.
BBC: News | UK Politics | Sir Leon: Britain's old hand in Brussels
Those debates will now be put on the back burner as the heads of government look to replace Commission President Jacques Santer sooner rather than later.
And, with the single currency presumably in place by then and talks with prospective new members under way, the commission will need a president with more political clout than Mr Santer.
He wants, for instance, to abolish the way foreign-policy jobs were dished out under Mr Santer by geography, and to allocate them instead along such lines as humanitarian affairs and security.
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"If one or several member states don't play the game the sanctions are robbed of meaning, " Mr Santer said, announcing that the commission would be investigating the matter at talks next week.
As for Mr Trojan, though untainted by the carelessness and petty scandals that dished the previous team of commissioners led by Jacques Santer last year, the collapse did happen on his watch.
Pushed and pulled in different directions by national governments over the years, and weakly led by Mr Santer, the commission has lost its confidence, its sense of purpose, and any clear sense of priorities.
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