The History Boys

Alan Bennett's hugely popular play about Sheffield schoolboys aiming for Oxbridge gets a respectful big-screen treatment from Hytner, using the original cast and letting the wise and witty words do the work. The lovely Richard Griffiths's idealistic, repressed gay history teacher is the biggest act among many astute performances.

Late, great-girthed actor Richard Griffiths, aka Withnail & I's Uncle Monty, heads up the original stage cast in this screen adaptation of Alan Bennett's award-winning theatre comedy. Griffiths is Hector, an inspirational general studies teacher at a 1980s boys' grammar school with a reputation for unorthodox teaching methods - not least his penchant for fondling the pupils he offers rides home on his moped. To the boys (including a young Dominic Cooper and James Corden), Hector is an avuncular joke and their favourite teacher - until along comes Stephen Campbell Moore's Irwin to help them with the Oxbridge entrance exams. Think a sharper, British version of Dead Poets Society, realised with deadpan wit.