The Queen was one of those films that was much better than, on paper, it should have been, and a large part of the reason was Michael Sheen’s completely convincing performance as British Prime Minister Tony Blair. That was in fact the second time Sheen had played Blair (the first was a made-for-TV production from 2003); this film marks the third time. All three movies had the same writer ‘creating’ Blair as well as the same actor playing him. It’s one long performance and one we’re happy to see more of.

This episode focuses on the ‘special relationship’ between Blair and Bill Clinton (Quaid) – starting (so the movie posits) as hero worship, when Blair is a mere candidate for Prime Minister, looking up with adoring eyes to the still golden US President. For the next four years we watch political manoeuvring – mostly relatively gentle; this is a ‘special relationship’, after all – in both the White House and Downing Street, leavened with glimpses into the two leaders’ very different domestic lives. In both public and private it’s Blair, as portrayed by Sheen, who’s the one to watch: a likeable, constantly smiling, somewhat goofy-looking man with the good fortune to be easily underestimated.