There is early skirmishing with the KraysвЂ™ arch-enemies, the Richardsons, but soon the twins and all-powerful and their influence is stretching into the West End. The film features an ethereal voice-over from Frances (Emily Browning) which introduces us to the brothers grim when they are already in their 1960s pomp, with Reggie established as вЂњthe gangster prince of the East EndвЂќ and Ronnie diagnosed as a violent schizophrenic, which to him is a badge of honour. Their beloved mum Violet is barely glimpsed outside one or two scenes in which she offers tea and cake to the boys.

He doesnвЂ™t bother with their East End childhood, their early days as boxers or their time spent AWOL or behind bars during National Service. HelgelandвЂ™s screenplay starts well into the Kray brothersвЂ™ criminal career. Tom Hardy and Emily Browning as Reggie Kray and Franie Shea in Legend In spite of the bloodletting and violence, it is a very glossy film, beautifully shot in luxuriant widescreen colour by cinematographer Dick Pope (fresh from Mr Turner, his biopic of artist J.M.W Turner) and with plenty of Burt Bacharach on the soundtrack. It takes a mythologising and, at times, absurdly romantic, approach to its low-life heroes. The characters are British, the setting is London in the 1960s, but the film has the feel of an American gangster epic. Legend is a biopic on a very lavish scale. (вЂњAn open jaw will fracture easily,вЂќ Pearson explains ReggieвЂ™s thinking.) As John PearsonвЂ™s book, The Profession Of Violence, on which the film is loosely based, explains, this was when Reggie would offer someone a cigarette and then, as the man opened his mouth to take it, would hit him on the side of the jaw. We see a couple of examples of his notorious вЂњcigaretteвЂќ punch. Reggie, meanwhile, is dapper, very soulful when he is sharing lemon sherbets with the beautiful young Frances (Emily Browning) but calculating when violence is called for.

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