Whoopi Goldberg plays Deloris, a Reno lounge singer who's forced into the witness protection programme, after accidentally barging in on a hit by her gangster boyfriend (Harvey Keitel).

Her hideout proves to be a convent - and her 'cover' is her habit. 'Look at me,' she wails. 'I'm a nun. I'm a penguin.'

Inevitably, Deloris comes to be affected by her surroundings, notably in organising the convent choir into an enlargement of Diana Ross and the Supremes.

So, when her cover is blown, with a concert before the Pope by the now-famous choir just hours away, she doesn't want to leave.

This all gets a bit over-the-top towards the end, even for a farce, but highly enjoyable for all that.

Whoopi is pretty well the whole show, with the eminent Dame Maggie Smith a little lost as the waspish 'mother of all Mother Superiors'.