Colin Diamond (Ray Winstone) is shattered by being cuckolded by a young French waiter. His gorgeous wife Liz (Joanne Whalley) is leaving him. Urged on by his posse of ne’er-do-wells, he has kidnapped the young man in question and is now expected to exact revenge, and the lads are more than keen to help.

Never mind that this film is not ‘cinematic’ in the normal sense (it could work equally well on TV, the stage or even radio); never mind that most of the action takes place in a drab dilapidated house through the course of one night. This is a compelling analysis, not just of a man’s breakdown, but of what it means to be a man in a ‘man’s world’, which, let’s face it, usually means being afraid of women. All the actors are commendable (I suddenly had the thought: when will someone offer Ray Winstone King Lear?), but in particular Ian McShane excels as Meredith, the gay with a superiority complex, and John Hurt plays Old Man Peanut like Albert Steptoe steeped in unalloyed hatred. Add Stephen Dillane and Tom Wilkinson on top form and you have a cast of genuine quality.

The writers Louis Mellis and David Scinto brought us Sexy Beast a few years back. First-time director Malcolm Venville appropriately resists the flamboyancy of that film. I’m not convinced by the film makers’ assertion that if you say “cunt” often enough it turns into poetry, but the dialogue has humour as well as visceral bite and the players bounce off its rhythms perfectly. Recommended.