DIRECTOR Paul Andrew Williams’ previous movies – London To Brighton, The Cottage, Cherry Tree Lane – have shocked some with their bad language, horror and violence. The most shocking thing about his new film Song For Marion is that it contains none of those.

It’s what the marketing people like to label feel-good, an odd description when one of the leading characters dies, but the story does celebrate the triumph of the human spirit. I can hear you groaning already at the prospect of drowning in gooey sentiment, but Williams, aided by a dream cast, avoids this becoming a schmaltz-fest.

What is surprising is finding Terence Stamp playing a grumpy old pensioner – think Victor Meldrew but even more miserable – and doing it very well indeed. His wife Marion (Vanessa Redgrave) belongs to OAPZ, a choir of happy pensioners who singalong under the baton of conductor Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton). They find it lifts their spirits and helps them through their later years. And their repertoire isn’t what you might expect, with arrangements of Let’s Talk About Sex and Motorhead’s Ace Of Spades.

Marion has a terminal illness but rejects the pleas of her loving husband Arthur (Stamp) to take it easy. The OAPZ are preparing for a singing competition and Marion is earmarked for a rousing solo. When the pain of her illness becomes too much she asks Arthur to take her place, setting the scene for an emotional and, yes, tear-jerking finale.

Williams orchestrates the domestic scenes and the choir scenes with feeling. Redgrave is radiant as the dying Marion and Stamp a revelation as her cantankerous husband, with excellent support from Arterton and Christopher Eccleston as their estranged son.