There’s a belief that Dame Dench could act opposite a lamp pole and still get a result. Which is not to suggest that Hoskins is in any way wooden, but Frears’s film turns on the splendid performance of his leading lady. For performance is the key to Mrs Henderson Presents, a shrewd comedy about theatre, darling. Recently bereaved, the titular matron (Dench) finds the worst has happened: she is bored with widowhood. To relieve herself of interminable lunches she purchases a dilapidated theatre and installs Victor Van Damme (Hoskins) as manager.

Frears is something of a genre hopper having directed, with varied results, gay drama (My Beautiful Laundrette), gothic horror (Mary Reilly) and romantic comedy (High Fidelity). To this list he adds period comedy with, well, varied results. Dench is a formidable presence and by contrast Hoskins is obliged to rely on frustration which, without his trademark cockney bravado, makes him seem something of a middle-class impostor. Consequently the brewing hostility between these unlikely business partners never seems real enough to make the material soar as it should. The sense that these are actors acting like actors lends a chilly air to the occasionally arch production.

However there are some effervescent touches, such as Henderson’s proposal of nude review to revive their fortunes, and the company’s Churchillian do-or-die attitude when war breaks out. Inspired by true events, Martin Sherman’s crackling script is a delight in the Dame’s mouth that sits comfortably amid Andrew Dunn’s glossy camerawork and George Fenton’s lively score. In balance, Mrs Henderson Presents is, as Mrs Henderson would have it, quite delicious.

// COLIN FRASER