The American President (1995 Rob Reiner)

Written by Aaron Sorkin, and thus almost totally dialogue-driven - but it's good, smart dialogue and often very funny. Michael Douglas is the fantasy US president who's trying to fight gun law - ha! His team comprises Martin Sheen, Michael J Fox, Anna Deveare Smith, David Paymer, Samantha Mathis and Anne Haney. Annette Bening takes his eye, Shawna Waldron is his daughter, Richard Dreyfuss a below-the-belt politician. And John Mahoney in stroppy mode.

Beware ITV's version which crops John Seale's Panavision to 16x9 - not that the full width is used particularly effectively. Marc Shaiman's music is a bit pompous.

Douglas has a light touch his father didn't.

It's kind of old-fashioned really. (Nothing wrong in that.)

Sorkin wrote the play then screenplay of A Few Good Men, then went on to Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The West Wing (for which this is basically the model), The Social Network, Charley Wilson's War, Moneyball, The Newsroom, Steve Jobs.

Last seen five years ago, when I liked the security guard who has heard of Frank Capra, though in one of his films, members of the President's own administration would have been plotting against him. This is utter fantasy, beyond Capra - the utopian president - perhaps where Curtis's from Love Actually comes from. Funnily enough, Frank Capra III is the assistant director.