Most of the narrative revolves around the years between 1964 and 1967, from Orton's first West End success to his death at the hands of Kenneth Halliwell, his live-in partner. The film begins with the discovery of two bodies - Orton's and Halliwell's - and proceeds to use a flashback structure to tell the story. The wraparound scenes are disposable, set in 1987 and featuring a writer tracing Orton's life through his diaries and conversations with his agent. They are rather dull and have none of the sly wit and charm of the Orton sections. It does, of course, help the film a lot that Oldman is a superb actor. His Orton is totally convincing; charming, selfish and occasionally infuriating. It's all the more incredible considering that Oldman had just completed his previous tour-de-force as Sid Vicious in "Sid and Nancy" - his Orton and his Sid are completely different in manner, body language and speech. Orton lived with the lumbering, awkward Kenneth Halliwell, whom he met at drama school. Halliwell was initially the more successful of the pair, but his decline corresponds with Orton's rise to stardom. He was incredibly jealous of Orton's success, and was perpetually humiliated by his partner's daily practice of casual sex in public toilets. Alfred Molina makes Halliwell irritatingly self-assured at first, and then extremely poignant as he plunges into depression and jealousy. There's also a lovely performance from Vanessa Redgrave as Orton's agent, the formidable Peggy Ramsay.

These superb performances are joined by a third success - the witty, trenchant screenplay by Alan Bennett. All of Bennett's characteristics are present; the obsession with small details, the outrageous one-liners, the sudden lurches into tragedy, the contrasts between appearance and reality. Sometimes this doesn't quite work for the biographical context - Julie Walters, playing Orton's mother, seems to have wandered in from a "Talking Heads" performance - but it often suits the mileu of camp London society very well. Too many memorable lines to quote, but my favourite comes near the end. When Orton's sister, combining the ashes of the pair, worries that she has put too much of Kenneth's ashes to too few of Joe's, she is informed by Redgrave, "It's a gesture dear, not a recipe." Bennett's dialogue is better than his construction though. Orton's story is strong enough to be told straight, without the distracting flashback structure.

Stephen Frears does a fine job with the direction, which is generally self-effacing and centred on the actors. He does sometimes pull off striking effects with lighting and composition though, and the final murder scene is handled with great subtlety. Excellent cinematography by Oliver Stapleton - I liked the contrasts between grey London and sun-washed Morocco - and very good period music by Stanley Myers. It's a very affecting film in many ways, but with lots of filthy humour along the way for anyone who isn't offended by the subject matter.

The DVD is a budget release from Carlton, which I managed to pick up for £6. I do have some quibbles with the presentation, but for the price this was an excellent bargain. It is packaged in the generic Silver Collection style, although the blue is more fetching than the yellow on some other releases.

The picture quality is good and bad. Good in the sense that the image is sharp and clear. Bad in the sense that this is 4:3 only. Now, normally with a film like this - made by a TV company - that wouldn't matter, but there are some scenes which show signs of cropping, so that you can only see part of the actors' heads when they are on opposite sides of the frame. It's not as bad as it would have been with a 2.35:1 film, but it's unnecessary and distracting, especially when other Silver Collection films have received 1.85:1 transfers when they weren't needed. However, most of the scenes have the action in the middle of the frame, so the annoyance isn't felt too often.

The sound is mono. Nothing more to say really, as it's generally clear, although one or two scenes have a lot of ambient noise and the dialogue is slightly difficult to hear.

There are a miserly 15 chapter stops. The only extra is a trailer for the first Silver Collection releases, which is very brief and contains no film clips. Nice animated menu though, with the theme music played over a scene from the film.

The film is very good and highly recommended. I have some reservations about this DVD, but it's slightly better than a VHS release and for the price it is a real bargain, especially since you should be able to find it for less than the RRP of £9.99.

Mike Sutton