Despite a final half hour that's full of laughs, Death takes so long getting its farce gears moving that the audience becomes comatose with anticipation of mirth that is too late in coming.

It's no classic, but it did prompt me to watch those great old Ealing Alec Guinness comedies again.

In the end the knockabout humour totally destroys the glimmers of spiteful sophistication which would have made it much funnier.

Although the British comedy had faded in prominence at the box office, they were still being made to a delightful degree into the 2000s. Death at a Funeral proved the genre still had something left to give.