A United Kingdom review: A glossy account of a nasty time

In recent years there have been calls from around a certain former empire on which the sun never set for former colonialists to pay reparations. That may never come to pass, but contemporary cinema – the medium that once spawned Zulu – is attempting to provide some cultural compensation, at least.

Thus, Belle director Amma Asante has excavated this thoroughly nasty historical episode concerning a high-profile interracial romance.

In 1947, Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), the soon-to-be king of British protectorate Bechuanaland – now Botswana – meets and falls for office clerk Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike). Their subsequent marriage appals her racist father (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and his equally unwelcoming relatives. How can a white queen represent black people, asks Seretse’s dismayed sister (Terry Pheto)?

Ghastly British colonial officials (Tom Felton channelling Raiders of the Lost Ark's Major Toht, and Jack Davenport reprising his Pirates of the Caribbean baddie) go even further. Keen to appease the newly-apartheid state of South Africa – home of uranium and gold supplies – they detain Seretse in London.

Will various political champions, including a young Tony Benn (Jack Lowden), be able to challenge successive Westminster governments on the matter?

Working from Susan Williams' book Colour Bar, screenwriter Guy Hibbert (Omagh, Eye in the Sky) works hard to convey the realpolitik surrounding the romance, yet never allows us to forget that there are taboos lurking behind diplomatic machinations. Oyelowo and Pike, meanwhile, counter the politics and worthiness with chutzpah and warmth.

Picking up where she left off with the terrific Belle – the hit historical drama concerning the 18th century, mixed race aristocrat, Dido Elizabeth Belle – Asante's handsome, glossy account of the Williams-Khama alliance, masks a great deal of ugliness.