Cert 15 89mins Stars 3

Sex among the upper classes is explored in this comedy drama which mixes a film noir detective story and the novels of Evelyn Waugh with mild successful.

It’s based on a novel by Stephen Fry, and his over bearing smug pomposity weighs down every line of dialogue.

Roger Allam plays a failed poet who wallows in the caustic mud of his own cynicism. His voice over is full of cruel asides and flowery language, which delights in its public schoolboy humour and obsesses over bodily fluids and functions.

The whiskey sodden writer is employed by a glamorous blonde to investigate a miraculous healing which took place at a large country house.

Fry previously directed a big screen adaptation of Waugh’s Vile Bodies, called Bright Young Things. And there as here, he fails to make us care about his herd of posh idiots.

However the jolly jazz era inspired soundtrack help make it surprisingly brisk on its feet.