Religion, politics, rivalry, ambition - this film has everything except sex. Richard Harris makes a dour but decent job of the awkward role of Oliver Cromwell, whose complex life story proves, expectedly, remarkably difficult to translate to the screen. Meanwhile, Alec Guinness proves a hard act to compete with as King Charles I. The clash between the two men is the centre of the film's drama, while the fighting at the battles of Nazeby and Edgehill are the most showy and thrilling sequences. The director Ken Hughes' earnest account of Cromwell's rise to Puritanical power is occasionally laboured and grinding, but there's still plenty to admire here in this painless British history lesson for all schoolchildren who prefer movies to textbooks. Winner of one Oscar - for best frocks - and they're easily the best thing about the movie, though Frank Cordell's score and Geoffrey Unsworth's cinematography are impressive too.

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