At the close of Milos Forman’s Oscar-winning film, Amadeus, the central character, the terminally envious court composer Salieri, declares: ‘I speak for all mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint.’ It’s one of the many memorable lines in the film, adapted from Peter Shaffer’s play, which revolves around the relationship between the decorous, respectable, well-connected Salieri and Mozart, who is portrayed as a near-insufferable upstart who has been given – unfathomably, in Salieri’s eyes – a musical talent that dwarfs everyone around him, not least the older man.

There is every chance that Amadeus will be rubbish, a classic cheapened by identity politics and made smaller, cheaper and shoddier than the peerless original. However, at the risk of causing

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