The darker recesses of Faerie are never too dark in this adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel. A spirit of whimsy predominates throughout, from the avuncular tones of Sir Ian McKellen’s opening narrative voice-over, or the ongoing chorus of ghostly brothers tut-tutting at their latest scheming sibling’s death, to Robert De Niro’s camp Captain Shakespeare, coming out to the strains of the Can-Can.

The screenplay by Jane Goldman (Mrs Jonathan Ross and presenter of Jane Goldman Investigates) and writer and director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) retains the genuine English eccentricity of the source material, perhaps partly explaining why it struggled to top the American box office.