David Copperfield

These are grim times, so we get what consolation we can. Earlier this month I raved about Little Women, and last night I saw another movie which seriously warmed my heart. I left the cinema and drove back in a cosy glow, feeling that maybe some things were alright with the world. As with Little Women, it does clever things with the fact that a central character ends up writing an autobiographical book, and here again devoted aficionados of the book have complained that elements of it have been lost. I don’t care. If what is left is as lively, warm and entertaining as this I’m more than satisfied. As you might expect from Armando Ianucci, there’s a lot of energy and humour. There’s also a gorgeous celebration of multicultural diversity - colourblind casting which ends up with black and Chinese faces which might astonish Dickens but underline this as a modern, positive celebration of who we are - even if our rulers and media work really hard to persuade us that we’re really dull, narrow-minded and totally white. So don’t give in to the gloom - get out and cheer yourself up.