of Max von Sydow as Schneider’s ex-husband gives you an idea of what this film could have been. His touching, patient, compassionate demeanour creates such a contrast to the vampiric feeding on emotion from the TV organisation that it condenses in a few minutes all the ideas the film has taken so long to say.

There’s much that’s interesting and watchable about Death Watch – not least the chance to see unbelievably young versions of Robbie Coltrane and (an unaccredited) Bill Nighy as well as a host of well known Scottish faces in small roles. But like many sci-fi films from the period you might be best advised to get it on DVD so you can pause and ponder rather than attempting to process it all in one bleak bite.