The Orchard Tea Garden in Grantchester has brought customers to the boil by uploading a photo of one of the steamier moments in Love Actually to its Facebook page.

The screenshot, depicting Joanna Page and Martin Freeman starring as porn-movie stand-ins recreating sexual positions, bears the caption: “Had they just had their Valentine’s Dinner at the Orchard Tea Garden – Grantchester, Cambridge?”

“This is a lovely tea garden where I’d take my mum and my children. Not if this is how you choose to advertise yourselves!”

Fay Rowland, Wesley House student

The provocative post appears to be part of a campaign by new managers of the 120-year-old café, aimed at spicing up their appeal for one of their most popular evenings.

Intimate scenes from 1980s rom-coms When Harry Met Sally and Dirty Dancing have featured with the same caption over the past few weeks, but the most recent image was rather the climax.

For many local residents, this style of marketing has hardly been their cup of tea. “This is a family tea garden,” Carolyn Pritchard commented. “If this is the Orchard Tea Garden posting these adverts I object as they are very inappropriate.”

Fay Rowland, a Theology student at Wesley House, added: “NOT appropriate. This is a lovely tea garden where I’d take my mum and my children. Not if this is how you choose to advertise yourselves! Immediate apology, please!”

The campaign, no doubt, marks a divergence from the genteel reputation of the café, where Virginia Woolf, Alan Turing, Steven Hawking and Prince Charles are all said to have taken tea.

For other customers, however, this has been a storm in a teacup. One Facebook user, Andrew Williman, commented: “If this is what goes on there now… Book me a table!”