The four famous interviews between Richard Nixon and David Frost in 1977 amount to one of the greatest slices of reality TV yet recorded. It sounds like an awful night out in the cinema. But you will be amazed. In Frost/Nixon Ron Howard turns this duel between Michael Sheen’s glossy playboy and Frank Langella’s shifty ex-President into a gripping tango of egos.

Frost banks every last ounce of his shoddy credibility into picklocking an apology from Nixon for Watergate. The old creep has no intention of rolling over for the young punk. Indeed if Nixon crushes Frost on prime time television it might be his “way back to the sun”.

“Did you fornicate last night?” asks Langella’s ex-President, just seconds before the show goes live. Frost blinks. The cameras roll. The flustered fool fails to land a single punch.

The build-up to the final confrontation is electric, not least because you feel history is being reminted before your eyes. The genius of Howard’s film is how much sympathy he generates for Langella’s brooding anti-hero. There’s a sharp suspicion that Nixon felt his legacy would mean nothing without Frost.

15, 122 minutes

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