Adapting Robert Harris’s bestseller, the movie finds a groove of high-end professionalism. The casting department is particularly overachieving. You realise that, somewhere in your mind’s eye, you have always imagined Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow as regal cardinals, more or less exactly as they both turn up among contenders for the throne.

Ralph Fiennes is Oscar-worthy astonishing - 5/5 Edward Berger’s account of cardinals battling to be the new Pope is a thrilling succession story, and Ralph Fiennes is simply hypnotic

When the actor, 62, thinks about slowing down his workload, he tells himself, "Just shut the f--- up, Ralph, get on with it."

Fiennes stars alongside Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rossellini, John Lithgow and more in the Oscar-tipped papal thriller.

Although they have differing takes on faith, The Exorcist, 2008 drama Doubt, and 2016 Best Picture winner Spotlight are among those who have found awards success through stories involving the Church.

There’s nothing normal about this place. Rigid mores and etiquette persist from centuries ago. Elderly men genuflect to kiss the ringed hand of a patriarch, while women are kept in the background. So much extraordinary wealth and influence underpins every action,