Becket

Sometimes when writing food reviews it is enough to do little more than list the dishes: that the chef has dared to try to pull them off is a clear sign of the level at which the dining experience is to be understood. Only then do the nuances of taste and execution really need to come out. As a film, Becket - about the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket and his fraught relationship with his friend and political rival Henry II - has some of the finest 'ingredients' amviewer could hope for: directed by Peter Glenville at the height of his career, it stars Richard Burton in the title role and Peter
O'Toole as the king (with John Gielgud as the French king Louis VII); the script is based on the play by major 20th century writer Jean Anouilh, the score is by the masterful Laurence Rosenthal. Lightweight it is not. Excellent, it is. [Rupert Thomson]