What was funny is now broken

catches him. And in that instant the heartbreak shifts. We no longer feel bad that Spud was ready to die; rather we feel bad because we know he will be put through the wringer again as long as he is in Renton’s company.

T2 Trainspotting riffs on the mythology of the original, but is not confined to it. The characters revisit places from their youth, but what once seemed funny and life-affirming is now broken.

Renton, Simon (Jonny Lee Miller) and Spud go to the place where they used to spot trains and take drugs. The act of them being there is purely ceremonial.

The film is generous, bighearted and full of wit. Although the narrative revolves around Renton and Simon rebuilding their friendship, Spud is the emotional centre of the film.

Bremner delivers a vulnerable performance that strikes the right balance between power and poise.

Every scene in the film is tightly plotted, but it is also fun. After Steve Jobs, Boyle shows that he is still a director of insistent vision. He works his images like mules, creating a look that is raw and intriguing.

We live in a world of perpetual memory where, because of the internet, nothing can ever be truly forgotten. The effect of this is a prison of nostalgia and a generic infantilisation of the culture. We are constantly looking back and we’re never able to move forward and imagine ourselves outside our past because it is always playing back at us.

T2 Trainspotting is effective because it shows us the past is just as harrowing as the present.

Renton visits his father, having not seen him since he left. He discovers his mother is dead. His father is barely able to look at him. Either the anger he feels for his son for abandoning them or the elation of seeing him alive makes way for a much more real emotion – the kind that cannot be articulated – that sits suspended in the air between two people who have so much to say, yet know words can never be enough.

It is a depressing scene. Renton hated his mother, but even her death does not satisfy him.

First there is an opportunity, then there is a betrayal. This theme is framed in the fragile relationship between Simon and Renton as they try outscam each other.

Boyle resists making T2 a portrait of disillusioned Britain disconnected from Europe by Brexit. Its political statements are more subtle.

Do not watch the original before this sequel. It benefits from vague memory and, in many ways, is more emotionally rewarding than the original.