When the rot sets in

"Langrishe, Go Down" is a very well written and multi-layered story and a masterful tour de force for its two leads, Jeremy Irons (brilliantly seedy as the 35-year-old leech of a 'scholar', Otto Beck) and Judi Dench, who brings the agonizingly conflicted Imogen Langrishe to life with superb subtlety.

We realize their relationship is doomed from the start - partly because it's based on their two very different kinds of desperation - but in this piece, once the two of them have fully realized that the proverbial honeymoon is quite over, it's the WAY in which Imogen responds to Otto's casually-delivered, soul-crushing insults that gives the movie its ultimate power.

It was originally produced as a BBC2 Play of the Week but it's now on dvd, finally. Well worth seeking out.