Victoria & Abdul

Stephen Frears’s period comic drama, about the friendship between the elderly Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) and her young Indian attendant (Ali Fazal) has its funny moments, but it reduces a tale ablaze with historical import and contemporary resonance to commemorative biscuit tin proportions. Dench is every inch the imperious delight you’d suppose, but the film short-changes and defangs her character. Robbie Collin PG cert, 112 min