Pudsey The Dog: The Movie, film review: Half-baked canine caper is a dog's dinner

(U) Nick Moore, 87 mins Starring: Pudsey the Dog, David Walliams, John Sessions, Izzy Meikle-Small, Jessica Hynes

The film showcases Pudsey, the dancing Border Collie that won Britain's Got Talent

This cheery but half-baked canine caper showcases Pudsey, the dancing Border Collie that won Britain's Got Talent in 2012.

After a bizarre, black-and-white, Hollywood-set prelude, which seems to be inspired by The Artist, the runaway mutt joins a London family building a new life in the countryside.

Single mum Gail (Jessica Hynes) and her three kids have rented a dilapidated farmhouse belonging to the dastardly, corduroy-trouser-wearing, dog-hating villain, Mr Thorne (a florid John Sessions). David Walliams voices Pudsey in a gruff, sergeant-major like way.

The jokes are feeble and sometimes crude: witness the pig that thinks it's a hen and keeps on defecating whenever it tries to lay eggs.

The film-makers have served up a dog's dinner of a movie with musical sequences and slapstick thrown into the mix at random. The tempo is brisk enough and there are a few laughs along the way but Lassie this is not.