In brief then… In the early 70s, when men were men, employees of hopeless Republican President Richard Nixon were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee's headquarters at the Watergate building.

It was then discovered that, under President's orders, there'd been an excessive amount of fraud, sabotage, bugging, bunging, and all round shenanigans going on and he was forced to resign in shame.

Being a good Republican, Nixon never apologised for or even admitted to his wrongdoings so, in 1977, David Frost (the same David Frost that Peter Cook famously regretted saving from drowning) decided that a good way to salvage his ailing chatshow career would be to interview him and make him do just that.

Frost/Nixon attempts, via the popular medium of docudrama, just how Frost went about securing the interview (with great difficulty since no one took him seriously) and how his team of researchers set out to trap the hound-faced Nixon and the lengths to which the former President's people went to undermine his opponent.

Directed by Ron 'we've forgiven him for 'Howard the Duck' since he made 'Arrested Development'' Howard, with careful and evocative attention to period detail. Frost is gently rendered by Michael Sheen, adding to his rubber-faced repertoire of Tony Blair and Kenneth Williams, and Frank Langella is completely believable as the jowly, stuttering liar-in-chief.

While Frost/Nixon is a fascinating film that avoids the cliché of biopics and effectively illustrates the near impossibility of their task, ultimately it pails by comparison to the extraordinary theatre of the original interviews - a verbal equivalent to Ali & frazier's 'Thriller In Manila' bout.

We can't help wishing someone had been able to get to Thatcher (before she went all wibbly) and forced her to admit her wrongs too. Well, there's still Tony Blair, although it's going need a lot more than four interviews if he's going to list them all.
Litlebitofpoliticstherethankyouandgoodnight.

Three and a half deep throats out of five.

'INTERESTING FACT': Ron Howard refused to direct the film unless it starred the original actors who played Frost and Nixon in the 2006 stage production.