James Mason is outstanding as Trigorin in director Sidney Lumet's fine, faithful, though long and gloomy screen version of Anton Chekhov's great play. Mason had worked with Lumet before on The Deadly Affair, and Lumet is a past master of transferring plays successfully to film - even his first film, 12 Angry Men, was the definitive version of a TV play. And, for those who've forgotten, just look how good an actor the young David Warner (once the definitive Hamlet of his generation) was as Konstantin, the sensitive playwright, a reflection, surely of Chekhov himself. Essential, up-market literary viewing, done with style by people who clearly care.

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