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Before you ask no it's not a show about equines who've ingested too much tryptophan. While Gary Oldman has certainly compiled quite the movie resume since he began his career with director Colin Gregg's 1982 film Remembrance, his television appearances have been few and far between. In fact you have to go all the way back to 2002 to find the last time…...

Jr (Joe) Ackerley (1896-1967) was one of the great literary editors of his day (working on the BBC's now sadly defunct weekly the Listener), a writer of fastidious prose and as openly gay as he could have reasonably been at a time when homosexuality was a criminal offence. In his 60s, he wrote two rightly celebrated semi-autobiographical novels inspired by his Alsatian bitch, Queenie, both moving, extremely funny and rather daring for their day.

In We Think the World of You, published in 1960 and filmed in 1988 by Colin Gregg, an Alsatian bitch called Evie becomes the subject of contention between a sad, middle-aged queen (Alan Bates) and the family of his butch, working-class ex-lover (Gary Oldman).

In its companion piece, My Dog Tulip, published in 1956, Queenie is called Tulip (Ackerley's many gay friends thought the Alsatian's real name would raise titters) and it has been made into an exquisite animated...