Amadeus

This is a funny, sumptuous, intelligent take on the play — far from merely a cover version.

Sharpe is delectable in the role, precocious yet understated, and with an ambition both formidable and naïve, masking the pressure he’s under from his father, who wants him to move back to Salzburg so he can manage him. Bettany, meanwhile, is brilliantly restrained, seething with jealousy and repression.

It is a series that manages to be both vivacious and vicious and is a Christmas treat come early.

There are plenty of bits of hits, but missing is the play’s probing examination of quite why Mozart is so new and astonishing.

Bettany as Salieri does well with a script that offers him no chance to compete with F Murray Abraham’s Oscar-winning performance. Sharpe as Mozart is, likewise, hampered, but even controlling for the script’s banality, his performance is a thin, half-hearted thing.