The Duke  ★★★

YOU’RE in safe hands with Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren.

The Brit veterans are perfectly cast as husband and wife in the amiable British comedy/drama The Duke.

Based on actual events, Broadbent plays proud, working-class pensioner Kempton Bunton who has  most of his adult life in Newcastle upon Tyne railing against authority.

Kempton is struggling to hold down a regular job while trying to interest the BBC in his script for a television series.

At the same time he is fighting with government authorities over having to pay an annual television licence. Kempton believes pensioners at least should not have to pay.

His wife Dorothy is the anchor of the family which also includes two adult sons and is clearly exasperated by the life she thinks shouldn’t be so difficult and combatative.

Kempton’s rage at the system boils over with news that the government-run National Gallery has spent a huge sum on purchasing a portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Spanish artist Goya.

You may know the story from here – I didn’t – but Kempton goes on trial for stealing the painting and trying to extort a ransom.

His defence is that he borrowed the painting in the hope he could get some money for charities and eventually, when he realised this wouldn’t happen, returned it.

It’s a thoroughly engaging film, thanks to the snappy, economic script and performances from all concerned, including Matthew Goode as Kempton’s barrister.

This is the last narrative feature directed by the late Roger Michell  who also gave us Blackbird, My Cousin Rachel, Venus and Notting Hill. His doco on Queen Elizabeth II has also just been released.

Look for a nice little scene at the end from a James Bond film.