“Messiah or monster?”; “Mad Marxist Werewolf!”; “Loony-lefty” who “immatures with age” – all these lively sobriquets are invoked and debunked as Tony Benn (who died in March) looks back on a life well lived, insisting that “whether you win or lose a battle doesn’t matter – what matters is whether you fought hard”. Benn certainly fought with the best of them; from battling his way into the Commons (a hereditary peerage meant he was locked out) to leaving in order to “devote more time to politics”, he campaigned tirelessly for what he believed to be “right” – for “socialism over barbarism”.

Talking directly to camera in various locations, including his kitchen, Benn speaks passionately and honestly about his religious upbringing (“trust the prophets, not the kings”), his time as an RAF fighter pilot, his political education, his mother, his brother, and, most movingly, his wife, Caroline, a mighty source of inspiration.

Clips from Brassed Off, Network and Glengarry Glen Ross are intelligently interspersed with camera-prowls through theatrically dressed sets, artifice mixing with archive footage to dramatic effect. Most endearingly, Benn declares himself to be “chuffed” at a recently received death threat that proved, despite his status change from “most dangerous man in Britain” to “national treasure”, that he was “most definitely not harmless!” A worthy tribute to a much-missed man, who continues to encourage.