Oh dear. Oh blimey. Ooo-er. You've got to have a heart of stone, I suppose, not to smile at one or two of the Spike Milligan one-liners in this adaptation of his zany 1964 novel about the Irish partition.

But this really is the kind of depressing and shaming homegrown comedy that used to get released in the 1970s - here starring a stately collection of character actors, led by Richard Attenborough, each of whom individually gives the worst performance of his life.

Will a generation used to the sharper, in-your-face humour of Graham Norton, Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews possibly buy tickets for this dodgy pseudo-Irish whimsy?