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TOWARDS the end of this handsome costume drama, someone refers to its hero as a “brown John Brown”.
If this was the screenwriter’s attempt to steal a march on his critics, he needn’t have bothered.
It is glaringly obvious that Victoria And Abdul is replaying the beats of the 1997 film Mrs Brown, which stared Judi Dench with Billy Connolly.
Dame Judi won a Bafta for her flinty portrayal of a depressed Queen Victoria in that movie.
Here she’s at it again, glowering magnificently at her scandalised advisors as she cosies up to a bearded underling.
Sadly, Abdul (Ali Fazal) isn’t nearly as interesting as Connolly’s rebellious Scot. Not only is he disappointingly servile, but this time the stakes are considerably lower.
When we catch up with Her Maj, the big threat to the throne is boredom.
It’s 1887 and the Queen is worn out after half-a-century of service. In her first scene, she barely looks up from her plate as she races through a royal banquet.
We see a flicker of life when two Indian servants arrive to present her with a ceremonial trinket.
“I thought the tall one was rather handsome,” she tells advisors.
And when she quickly promotes him to “Munshi” – spiritual advisor, Urdu teacher and authority on all things Indian – worried looks begin to dart around the palace.
Soon Victoria is trilling her favourite Gilbert and Sullivan number.
This is all decent material for a knockabout farce. And for the first hour, there are some hearty laughs as the stuffy courtiers are scandalised by the sudden rise of an uneducated Muslim.
Dench is predictably brilliant, while Eddie Izzard puts in a suitably slimy turn as her outraged son and heir, Prince Bertie.
But once Abdul is ensconced in a cottage with his wife and mother-in-law, director Stephen Frears (The Queen) keeps aiming for the same broad laughs.
Dench’s Victoria is more or less as she was in Mrs Brown – a spiky but lovable grandmother.
“A brown John Brown” is a clever line – but “a bland John Brown” might be more accurate.