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Timothy Spall gives a career-best performance in the fascinating British biopic Pierrepoint (aka The Last Hangman, the film's factually incorrect American title). Auf Wiedersehen, Pet star Spall plays England's most famous 20th century executioner, Albert Pierrepoint, in this period drama directed with simple efficiency by Adrian Shergold. In the wrong hands this could have been capital punishment, but as a low key drama about one man's unique approach to life and other people's deaths, it's actually just, er, capital.

The short film about killing starts in 1930s Oldham, with Albert Pierrepoint determined to follow in the family footsteps and become a hangman. Showing remarkable dedication to his job and sensitivity to the condemned men and women in his care - no gallows humour here - Albert soon rises through the ranks to become the best in the business. It's his pursuit of perfection, and ability to divorce himself from the fact that he's taking someone's life, that constantly leaves you amazed (look out for the scene when he breaks the prison record for a timed hanging).

"PLENTY OF TRUE-LIFE INCIDENTS TO KEEP YOU HOOKED"

Extraordinary lives don't always make for extraordinary films, but Pierrepoint has plenty of powerful true-life incidents to keep you hooked - it's also a great companion piece to 80s Brit pic Dance With A Stranger, about one of Pierrepoint's 600-plus 'victims', Ruth Ellis. Spall's understated performance gets under the skin of a craftsman whose skill just happens to lie in state-sanctioned killings, while Juliet Stevenson also excels as the unknowing wife who has to come to terms with her husband's secret career. Go see it.