Angst king John Hurt is at it again in this version of George Orwell's bleak vision of the future.

And nobody does it better, whether the suffering is mental or, in the harrowing latter part of the film, physical, as interrogator Richard Burton sticks electricity through the thin-framed Hurt like a butcher skinning a carcass of meat.

Hurt also has his hair chopped off again, and his fans must be wondering what it's like to see him smile.

As the treacherous junk dealer, Cyril Cusack scoops up what acting scraps Hurt (and the film's ubiquitous rats) leave around, but the ultimate result of Michael Radford's downbeat direction is a sombre and hard-hitting film.

After this one, you may not be able to look a rat in the eye for some time!