Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman

The key to the film is in the performances by Spall and Stevenson -- and by Marsan. The utter averageness of the characters, their lack of insight, their normality, contrasts with the subject matter in an unsettling way.

Grim and disturbing yet perversely riveting.

The movie grows more compelling in the latter half as British public opinion turns against capital punishment and Pierrepoint begins to have his own doubts.

Adrian Shergold's The Last Hangman, an account of the career of Albert Pierrepoint (Timothy Spall), Britain's final executioner, is a superior work.