On the surface this is a real shaggy dog story, with Alan Bates as Frank, a middle-aged middle-class civil servant settling for the love of a German Shepherd bitch, Evie, after its owner, Johnny, the son of Frank's former charwomen, is jailed for burglary. It is a slight story of supressed emotions. Where more is said between the lines than on the surface between Frank and Johnny's parents (the wonderfully dour Liz Smith and Max Wall), who never openly acknowledge Frank's real interest in their son and try desperately to hang onto the animal at all costs. Director Colin Gregg is so keen to keep everything simmering under the surface, however, that it is only a couple of scenes with Bates and the under-exercised dog bounding freely from its terraced house prison that the film really comes alive.

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